Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: 
Empathetic Design

Designers, even those applying research about the people who will use a space, can lose track of the experience that a “non-standard” person can have in the places they’re developing.

Much research focuses on the experience of average users, but few of us are actually “typical.” We’re too tall or too short or too thin or too heavy or too something else to be “standard.” Average and usual are in fact scarce and unusual. Designers must consider the experience of the full range of people who will use the spaces they are developing.

Recently, I was in a lovely green building packed with staircases ascending majestically from the lobby up into tenants’ offices. I think staircases are great ways to burn climbers’ fat reserves and cut the natural resources used to move elevators, but I have asthma. I can’t climb too many stairs. I followed poorly designed and located signage far into the structure before finding a forlorn elevator.

Making elevators less conspicuous has repeatedly been shown to increase stair use, but people who need to use them, because they have respiratory issues, or sprained their knee, or are pregnant, etc., shouldn’t feel like they’ve been bad and are being punished for pushing that magic button. They should be able to follow clear signage to a pleasant waiting space. Designers packing a structure with staircases should consider the physical and psychological needs of people who can’t use them; that’s empathetic design.

Oversized furniture is a delight for people like me who are very tall, but not for those who are short. I’m over six feet tall and enjoy sitting on a sofa with deep cushions and higher than usual armrests. This is the same furniture that makes my five foot tall colleagues feel ill at ease and infantilized. Anyone selecting this furniture should consider this.

Colorful artworks, on walls and floors and elsewhere, are often prominent features of public spaces. But how do they look to the colorblind? With proper forethought the colorblind and the color seeing can both enjoy a space. Designers creating a space that will showcase color need to review how people who don’t see that color in the usual way will feel in an area.

Empathetic design requires a careful review of the “standard” and “nonstandard” experiences that can be expected in spaces being developed. It entails considering how people who are mobility-impaired, short, color blind or something else, will feel in a space that requires mobility, height and color vision, for example. If designers consider assessments, everyone in a space can enjoy it. That enjoyment boosts mood, performance, social experiences, and mental and physical health.

Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.