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BRIDGING DESIGNER-USER GAP WITH A VIRTUAL REALITY-BASED EMPATHIC DESIGN APPROACH: CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION DETAILS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Xinhui Hu ,
Hernan Casakin  and
Georgi V. Georgiev
Xinhui Hu*
Affiliation:
Center for Ubiquitous Computing, University of Oulu;
Hernan Casakin
Affiliation:
School of Architecture, Ariel University
Georgi V. Georgiev
Affiliation:
Center for Ubiquitous Computing, University of Oulu;
*
Hu, Xinhui, University of Oulu, Finland, xinhui.hu@oulu.fi

Abstract

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Without shared experiences, empathy gaps between designers and users are difficult to bridge. Advancing Virtual Reality (VR) has shed new light on this regard by enabling designers to simulate and experience their users' living scenarios in a virtual environment (VE). However, implementing VR-based empathetic design approach requires dealing with critical design questions, such as: (1) whether VR operators can develop empathy for unfamiliar user groups solely based on objective experience and (2) whether VR operators can utilize task-irrelevant contextual information in the VEs. To explore these issues, we designed an experiment based on two VEs with varying levels of detail that simulated the scenes viewed by people with red-green color vision deficiency (CVD). Participants were randomly assigned to either detail-rich or detail-simple VEs to complete neutral item-searching tasks. Results indicate that objective and neutral experience alone cannot elicit empathy towards users, and VR operating designers will utilize task-irrelevant contextual information.

Keywords

Virtual realityEmpathyUser centred designDesign methodsExperience design
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 3: ICED23 , July 2023 , pp. 797 - 806
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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