Heather Renée Barker
California State University, USA
Title: From empathy to innovation- Humanistic psychology driving innovation through a user experience design research methodology
Biography
Biography: Heather Renée Barker
Abstract
Design is optimization. Whether designing a treatment, therapy, object or city, the goal is to discover the most efficient means to use resources, time and energy while generating the most effective result; all responsive to a particular condition. This work demonstrates situational responses to complex adaptive systems through case-studies that have employed a design-thinking research methodology. Rooted in phenomenology, this method leverages empathy as the first step to develop novel solutions. Human-centered design is iteratively adapted to a social, interactive dynamism by applying concepts described in humanistic, behavioral and systems psychology. The projects described here, developed in collaboration with industry, show the application of this process to the design of interfaces, spaces and city services. Human-centered design is a service and does not assume pathology. Disorder is viewed as an opportunity to adapt and accommodate. The research methodology described here simultaneously studies responses to interactions with objects and within environments. This research focuses on contextual behavior in order to anticipate and affect behavioral change to changed conditions. As a human-centered design research approach, the intent is to develop an action-research strategy that will generate valuable results. Developing this procedural, contextual and experiential intelligence (XI) assumes a body-mind connection and requires acquiring domain-specific knowledge, concepts and skills that then translate to higher-order thinking skills; from making things to making meaning. This work describes the skills, tools, methods and results of an empathy-driven, human-centered process to deliver inclusive and innovative solutions.