The Importance of Incorporating Designer Empathy in Senior Capstone Design Courses

Abstract

Design and Engineering). His engineering design research focuses on developing computational representation and reasoning support for managing complex system design. The goal of Dr. Morkos' research is to fundamentally reframe our understanding and utilization of system representations and computational reasoning capabilities to support the development of system models which help engineers and project planners intelligently make informed decisions at earlier stages of engineering design. On the engineering education front, Dr. Morkos' research explores means to integrate innovation and entrepreneurship in engineering education through entrepreneurially-minded learning, improve persistence in engineering, address challenges in senior design education, and promote engineering education in international teams and settings. Dr. Morkos' research is currently supported by the National Science The Importance of Incorporating Designer Empathy in Senior Capstone Design Courses AbstractThis paper will detail the challenges two groups of students, at two varying universities working on two separate senior capstone design projects, experienced when designing for target users they lack empathy for. The projects presented in this paper support handicapped and/or disabled individuals. As many engineers will gain employment in a healthcare related field, it is important that they are able to empathize with the target user -often handicapped and/or elderly individuals. This is further exacerbated by the increase in the number of handicapped and elderly individuals in the United States as medical care improves and life expectancy continues to increase. Students are not formally educated on the disparity between products/users they design for and products/users they are familiar with. If not addressed, this could lead to engineers designing inappropriate and unsuccessful products.The major contribution of this paper is beyond that of the design and build of assistive technology, rather it is the experience students gained by designing a system for users that they lack empathy for (though they possess sympathy for). This is of particular importance here because senior capstone design, an experience meant to prepare students for "real world" engineering, must integrate many engineering and societal elements beyond that of building a technical system. Specifically, students were expected to integrate the physical, physiological, and psychological components of the end user into their design -soft content not formally taught to students.Additionally, this paper will detail the unanticipated, yet beneficial experiences students gained beyond engineering design through this project, as well as the challenges involved in incorporating the physical, physiological, and psychological aspects of the end user, and how students were able to overcome this challenge and deliver a successful design. Further, this paper will provide recommendations for how to formally integrate educational elements that help students learn these critical skills t...

From 'Empathic Design' to 'Empathic Engineering': Toward a Genealogy of Empathy in Engineering Education

“…Empathic design is valued for "empower[ing] designers by observation" [21]. Schmitt et al reported pedagogical strategies in two capstone design courses that were said to enhance student designers' empathy [22]. The paper starts by grounding the need of empathy in the gap between the engineering designers and their users, noting that empathy "is particularly important in engineering education where students may be of different demographics than those they will ultimately design for."…”

“…However, this focus on the empathizer's (designer's) inner life did not translate into pedagogical practice in the capstone projects, where empathy was once again operationalized as an instrument for data collection. Speaking of the projects-designing for users with disability, the authors concluded, "[r]egular exposure to handicapped users, their limitations, and how these impact their ability to perform daily tasks, can provide useful data" [22].…”

Development of Empathy in a Rehabilitation Engineering Course

“…Students did an accessibility simulation to promote empathetic design, and interacted with the customer five different times throughout the semester. Other authors have looked at developing empathy during capstone design [6] as well as an in ethics courses [7]. This work builds upon prior research by trying to understand which constructs of empathy are most impacted by a rehabilitation engineering course, as well as which course activities seemed to have the highest impact on students' development of empathy.…”

The Final Straw: Incorporating Accessibility and Sustainability Considerations into Material Selection Decisions

“…This module could possibly be used to engender empathy for individuals with disabilities within engineering students. Schmitt and colleagues described how they have used design projects to achieve this focusing on user-inclusive design [24]. Learning outcomes specific to developing empathy could be integrated into future iterations of this module or similar modules.…”