Cureosities | Empathy in Design
I was listening to a Brene Brown podcast where she was talking with Debbie Millman recently. I didn’t know who she was and have only a minimal awareness of her wife, Roxanne Gay. Regardless, I loved listening to the discussion of her life, her choices, how she’d maneuvered the corporate world and found her true voice in the design world. Toward the end, Brene Brown posed an idea that blew my mind and will forever stay with me, she said that she believes “design is a function of empathy” but she doesn’t know if that’s actually true. I honestly didn’t even hear the ensuing discussion because I was so floored by this simple connection of empathy to design. I’d never heard such an idea but as soon as I did it became such an important and enduring connection for me.
Empathy isn’t well represented in images, so let’s go with a beautiful tree in sunlight.
For some time now, I’ve been studying Brene Brown’s work around vulnerability and empathy and how it can help me grow to be a better person, a better partner, a better mother and a better leader at work. It’s always felt a like a parallel path to my design endeavors though, like that’s about the human interaction side of things and the design side is a separate study of aesthetic, function and composition, among other things. I’ve been sitting on this for a few weeks now though, and it’s continued to be a lightbulb moment for how we should be approaching design. For the purposes of my ponderings, I’m considering design to be focused on the built environment - building, interiors, landscape, lighting, furniture, etc - but I think it probably applies to design in any form.
The concept of design of the built environment being led by empathy actually offsets one of the things I’ve always struggled with in architecture - that it’s so often led by ego. Think of the legend of Frank Lloyd Wright’s only skyscraper - it was overbudget but rather than adjust the design, he made the whole building smaller but to scale….Corridors are too tight, ceilings too low, but it preserved the “architect’s vision". I’ve seen ego keep some in this profession from getting into the nitty gritty of the human experience. It allows more distance.
My definition of strong design is based on a foundation of giving back to its user, to enhance their lives, and I think the path to that may be empathy. How else can we know what is needed without understanding and considering the feelings and needs of the end user? What I love about this concept of empathy leading design is thinking about that person, months or years in the future, that will walk through and use that space and be more joyful, productive or find better connection because of the choices we make today.
So back to Brene Brown’s question, is design a function of empathy? I think it is, at least for me. The higher the consideration of others and their experience, the stronger the design will likely be, and the inverse also seems true. I don’t know that all design is driven by empathy but I do think design depth and success is directly related to the level of empathy brought to the design table.