Empathic Communication in Design Work
A New Approach to Work Relationships, the Design Process and Design Facilitation.
How does empathic communication influence design work?
For designers, the ability to empathize is not part of a job requirement, and our communication skills are often taken for granted. Designers must fulfil important tasks in the workplace and manage relationships with clients and designers, which potentially creates friction.
I outline how knowledge about empathic communication can be used in the design workplace as an attitude to approach and to improve work relationships and the design process – I propose Kompath, a thought and dialogue toolkit to guide designers to communicate their feelings and intentions while enhancing professionalism. Designers can move towards more balanced work relationships and make the design process easier. This approach has positive effects on the design work and creates a new role for the designer as a facilitator.
