Abstract
Empathy has long held a central role in design. However, when exploring more-than-human design, empathy has definite limits. We feel empathy primarily toward humans. Our empathy may also extend to certain animals and few, if any, objects. This paper will explore the limits of empathy and argue that cultivating curiosity is a necessary first step in a more-than-human design approach. It introduces techniques to develop curiosity and offers ways to make our curiosity more durable. It will then trace the linguistic roots of care, an etymological ancestor to curiosity, and argue that care is also necessary. Because care is fostered differently than curiosity (although curiosity may be a catalyst), this paper will offer techniques on how to cultivate care. Finally, it offers reflective remarks on how design may re-conceptualize itself to more closely embrace care and curiosity through practices and processes.
Keywords
interaction design; more-than-human; post-humanism; curiosity
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1124
Citation
Nazir, C. (2024) Beyond human-centered empathy: tools and techniques to engage curiosity, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1124
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Beyond human-centered empathy: tools and techniques to engage curiosity
Empathy has long held a central role in design. However, when exploring more-than-human design, empathy has definite limits. We feel empathy primarily toward humans. Our empathy may also extend to certain animals and few, if any, objects. This paper will explore the limits of empathy and argue that cultivating curiosity is a necessary first step in a more-than-human design approach. It introduces techniques to develop curiosity and offers ways to make our curiosity more durable. It will then trace the linguistic roots of care, an etymological ancestor to curiosity, and argue that care is also necessary. Because care is fostered differently than curiosity (although curiosity may be a catalyst), this paper will offer techniques on how to cultivate care. Finally, it offers reflective remarks on how design may re-conceptualize itself to more closely embrace care and curiosity through practices and processes.