Abstract
In this paper, we present a co-design workshop exploring challenges and design opportunities for intergenerational empathy building. A 4-hour design workshop was conducted with 23 participants aged between 20 and 41 years old. A range of design activities was conducted to allow young participants to empathize with the elderly, brainstorm existing challenges, and collectively elicit design ideas for intergenerational empathy building. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data collected from the study reports on the perceived challenges and design opportunities by the younger cohorts envisaged from early brainstorming, group discussion, and more refined storyboards. These insights reflect perspectives and attitudes of youth toward the elderly, and their imaginations of intergenerational relationships. The paper concludes by discussing design recommendations to meaningfully connect younger and older people.
Keywords
Empathy building; Intergenerational relationship; Co-design; Older adults
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1036
Citation
Chen, L., Zhang, Y., Qi, R., Zhang, W., Li, X.,and Zordan, M.(2025) Bridging the Gap: A Youth-Centered Co-Design Inquiry into Intergenerational Empathy, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1036
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 6 - Co-creation
Bridging the Gap: A Youth-Centered Co-Design Inquiry into Intergenerational Empathy
In this paper, we present a co-design workshop exploring challenges and design opportunities for intergenerational empathy building. A 4-hour design workshop was conducted with 23 participants aged between 20 and 41 years old. A range of design activities was conducted to allow young participants to empathize with the elderly, brainstorm existing challenges, and collectively elicit design ideas for intergenerational empathy building. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data collected from the study reports on the perceived challenges and design opportunities by the younger cohorts envisaged from early brainstorming, group discussion, and more refined storyboards. These insights reflect perspectives and attitudes of youth toward the elderly, and their imaginations of intergenerational relationships. The paper concludes by discussing design recommendations to meaningfully connect younger and older people.