Thesis

The empathy machine : a designer’s journey towards enhanced empathy in virtual reality

Creator
Rights statement
Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2026
Thesis identifier
  • T17588
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 202289140
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • What if designers could step into the lives of others, not just imagine them? Designers have often applied empathy to gain a deep understanding of other people’s needs, thereby premising empathy in human-centred design. Within psychology, empathy extends beyond understanding others’ perspectives, as represented by its cognitive dimension, to also encompass an affective dimension, which denotes emotional resonance with others. However, this multi-dimensional nature of empathy creates challenges for designers in achieving it, which frequently reflects humans’ nuanced interpretation of others’ circumstances. While designers possess a natural disposition towards empathy, this is bounded by their personal experience, which limits empathy towards others whose experiences diverge significantly from their own, including more-than-human perspectives. Simulating others’ experiences from a first-person perspective has been effective in bridging this relatability gap through a corporeal commonality. Although existing design practices integrate simulation tools, such methods often fail to capture the complexity of others’ emotional and mental states. This research presents the Digital Empathic Design Voyage, a methodological framework that structures the designers’ journey towards enhanced empathy through Virtual Reality (VR). The framework was developed through empathy experienced during two VR interventions designed to evoke empathy towards people living with vision impairment and towards nature. The approach taken to create these interventions informed a second methodological framework, Constructing Empathy in VR, outlining key considerations for constructing VR experiences for empathy. This second framework is also grounded in a deepened understanding of empathy’s causality activated during the two VR interventions. In addition, this research introduces the Empathic Empowerment Scale, an evaluation system for measuring and analysing empathy. By integrating VR’s technological capabilities with human skills, this research offers novel opportunities for augmenting design practice and developing empathy. Ultimately, it advances empathy-driven design approaches that value inclusivity and nurture ecological and social impact through meaningful experiential engagement.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Brisco, Ross
  • Wodehouse, Andrew
Resource Type
DOI
Date Created
  • 2025
Funder

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