This document discusses design thinking and its emphasis on empathy. It describes how design thinking uses empathy to understand users and their needs at different stages of the design process. It also explores some challenges of taking an empathic approach, such as the time required, and how methods like co-design and continuous user testing can help implement empathy effectively. Finally, it argues that empathy should be seen as a complement to technological and industrial inspiration in the design process.

2. Design thinking : l’approche empathique, clé de voûte
de l’entreprise créative ?
30 septembre 2014
Palais abbatial

3. Cette
soirée est organisée en
collaboration avec :

4. Les partenaires

5. design thinking.
penser «design» ?
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

6. Juicy Salif™ by Starck, Alessi

7. design thinking.
penser «conception».
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

8. Bill Moggridge
David Kelley
Tom Kelley
Mike Nuttall
Tim Brown
Jane F. Suri
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

9. designerly ways of thinking.
designerly ways of knowing.
designerly ways of doing.
(Archer, 1979)
(Cross, 1982)
© Catherine Elsen - 2014 (Nelson & Stolterman, 2003)

10. «The collected experience of the material
culture, and the collected body of experience,
skill and understanding embodied in the arts
of planning, inventing, making and doing».
© Catherine Elsen - 2014 (Royal College of Art, 1979)

11. ➜
être
empathique
➜
➜
Désirable
Faisable Viable
définir ➜ ➜
➜
créer
➜➜
obtenir un
feed-back
➜
itérer via
protocepts➜
➜
➜
INSPIRATION
IDEATION
IMPLEMENTATION
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

12. outils
méthode
méthodologie
mentalité
posture
(Postma et al., 2012)
SOCIETE
ERGONOMIE
PASSE ANTHRO POLOGIE PRESENT
PSYCHOLOGIE
«Empathy can be described as the ability to understand what it feels
like to be another person – what that person’s situation is like from
his/her own perspective»
© Catherine Elsen - 2014 (Wright & McCarthy, 2008)

13. comprendre le client et son CdC
comprendre les utilisateurs finaux
comprendre sa propre démarche
© Catherine Elsen - 2014 OXO «Lost gloves wall»

14. OXO «good grip»™
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

15. OXO measuring cup™
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

16. © Catherine Elsen - 2014

17. «L’oeil hégémonique cherche à dominer tous
les champs de la production culturelle et
semble affaiblir notre capacité d’empathie, de
compassion et de participation au monde».
© Catherine Elsen - 2014 (Pallasmaa, 2010)

18. interne et externe
«think (and fail) with your hands»
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

19. A. Gyrus ACMI and IDEO™
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

20. Dyson™
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

21. 1. innovation de rupture ?
2. chronophage !
3. design de service ?
(Norman & Verganti, 2012)
(Cain, 2005)
© Catherine Elsen - 2014 (Postma et al., 2012)

22. les freins
«If I’d asked customers what they wanted they
would have said a faster horse» (Ford, ca. 1908)
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

23. Temps
Possibilités
d'action
Connaissances
sur la situation
future
Temporalité des situations de conception
(d'après Midler, 1996)
Possibility to
act
Knowledge
on future
activity
Time
(Midler, 1996)
l’inspiration empathique en complémentarité de l’inspiration
technologique et industrielle
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

24. comportement ≠ conduite
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

25. co-design
DIY
collaboration
Makers...
participatif
contact / observation
continus
accès continu à des
utilisateurs
projection dans
usages futurs
introspection
personas
«design in
use»
étude de marché
utilisateurs vus comme
partenaires
utilisateurs vus comme
ressources
utilisateurs vus comme
sujets distants
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

26. #occ. #occ/#min
1,2
0,9
0,6
0,3
(Elsen & Leclercq, 2014)
Nombre d’occurrences empathiques
Durée (en min.)
Ratio #occ/#min
400
300
200
100
0
session empathique 45 min. 180 min. données empiriques
0
sessions expérimentales
de conception
des méthodes agiles pour l’implémentation efficace du D.T
© Catherine Elsen - 2014

28. design thinking
for service design

29. «To talk about design and leaving the
designer out is like talking about music and
leaving the musician out».
© Catherine Elsen - 2014 (Johansson-Sköldberg, Woodilla & Cetinkaya, 2013)

30. Sources bibliographiques:
Archer, B. «The three Rs». Design Studies, 1(1), (1979): 18-20.
Cain, R. «Involving Users in the Design Process: The Role of Product Representations in Co-Designing». Doctoral
dissertation, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Loughborough, (2005): 369 p.
Cross, N. «Designerly ways of knowing». Design Studies, 3(4), (1982): 221-227.
Elsen, C. and Leclercq, P. «How much time does it take for «experience design» to unfold ?». In P. Benz (Ed.),
Designing Experiences: Positions and Approaches. London: Bloomsbury Academic, (2014).
Johansson-Sköldberg, U., Woodilla, J., Cetinkaya, M. «Design Thinking: past, present and possible futures ?».
Creativity and Innovation Management, 22(2), (2013): 121-146.
Midler, C. «Modèles gestionnaires et régulations économiques de la conception». In G. Terssac & E. Friedberg (Eds.),
Coopération et Conception. Toulouse: Octarès, (1996): 63-86.
Nelson H, Stolterman E. «The Design Way. Intentional Change in an Unpredictable World». Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Educational Technology Publications, (2003).
Norman, D.A. and Verganti, R. «Incremental and radical innovation: design research versus technology and meaning
change». Submitted to Design Issues, (2012).
Pallasmaa, J. «Le regard des sens». Editions du Linteau, Paris. (2010): 91 p.
Postma, C.E., Zwartkruis-Pelgrim E., Daemen E., and Du, J. «Challenges of Doing Empathic Design: Experiences from
Industry.» International Journal of Design, 6(1), (2012): 59–70.
Royal College of Art, «Design in general education». Royal College of Art, London (1979).
Wright, Peter, and John McCarthy. «Empathy and Experience in HCI.» CHI ‘08: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference
on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York, NY: ACM, (2008): 637–646.

31. catherine.elsen@ulg.ac.be
Université de Liège
Faculté des Sciences
Appliquées
Département ArGEnCo
(Architecture, Géologie,
Environnement et Construction)
+32. (0)4.366.92.42
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