Fostering social inclusion: empathic approaches for migrant-centred design
Vanessa Cesário, Paulo Bala, Shuhao Ma, Valentina Nisi · 2023
In recent decades, the field of design, particularly interaction design, has brought attention to the experiences of migrants with technology. A key aspect of this research has been the active involvement of displaced communities in the design process, through the implementation of empathic design approaches. These approaches place significant value on subjective and experiential perspectives fostering a thought process in which individuals seek to understand others by relating to their experiences. Following this empathic approach, this work focuses on the design for and with migrants, by engaging long-term migrants through a focus group and a participatory activity. The aim of this work was to reflect on participants’ migration experiences through the creation of design artifacts. The created artifacts were analysed and discussed through the lens of empathic design approaches to distil implications to inform design in support of arriving migrants. Our findings highlight the importance of empathic design in the interaction design field and to promote social inclusion for marginalized communities.