Sustainable Fashion: A Handbook for Educators

21

To prepare the students for experiencing the subject
(client, consumer, co-worker) of their research, I tried to
establish how to advise the students on how to proceed. I
have been writing and researching around this area, and I
came up with the concept of an empathy loop.

Empathy Loop (Thomas 2007)

The idea being that the student would observe, then
witness (this may include asking open-ended questions),
then reflect, then respond, rather than react. Also, if they
were not sure that their response had been appropriate,
they could maybe talk again to the person they are
designing for and/or with. Or they would start the loop
again and observe and witness.

One of the terms in the loop is witness and I think quite
a few people are confused by this, but I like the idea of
witnessing, because basically it encompasses the idea of
sitting still, rather than leaping to the rescue and imposing
a solution. Pausing, even for a little while, and to be present
at, or have personal knowledge of, the other person (their
research subject) and their situation and perspective adds
insight to the eventual response. Thus, the subjects are able
to express themselves clearly and the student designer is
more able to understand them.

Fulton Suri wrote on this perspective:

“We cannot leap to design ideas from analysis directly nor can

we observe people’s thoughts and feelings – their motivations,

emotions, mental models, values, priorities, preferences and

inner conflict. Yet we need to integrate these subjective

phenomena, for it is these that make up people’s experiences

and help us as designers to respond.” (Fulton Suri: 2003)

An alternative and perhaps unexpected area where

empathy can be utilised is within the contemporary

corporate environment. It seems unlikely, but I believe

it makes sound commercial sense. There are four ways

this could happen. Firstly, empathy can be used as a

design methodology, thus the designer is empathic to the

production workers, their skills and work conditions, and

towards the earth (its current and future inhabitants),

which leads to a less damaging product. Secondly,

empathetic design can be used to add product differential.

The idea of using empathy would mean the resulting

product would be different, because the designer would

understand the environment and experience of the user/

consumer or worker more closely. Thirdly, empathy could

be used as a behavioural indicator. The concept is that

designers would be enabled to anticipate the behaviour of

consumers, maybe even their colleagues. Finally, empathy

can be an aspect of governance or a corporate model of

behaviour. The notion of working empathetically with other

people seems very logical but how often does it occur?

Empathy is a professional skill and tool, and a component

of being human and humane.

Alison Barnes and Paul Thagard wrote:

“...empathetic understanding is not always so automatic...

you may not be able to use your general knowledge about

people and yourself to construct a new situation in which you

imagine placing yourself.” (Barnes and Thagard: 1997)

This direction of thinking is supported by Aaron Sklar et. al.

(2004):

“...deeper understanding of their experiences and values...we

try to reach a deeper understanding of what they are thinking

and how they feel.”

This is just a small sample of ideas to start supportive and

proactive experiences building on the students’ abilities

rEspond oBsErVE

rEFlEct wItnEss

dEsIgn