Tag: implicit bias

The Empathy Points Method: Integrating Identity and Bias Recognition Into Design Education

Leveraging the diverse experiences of design teams.

Andrea Hempstead
Associate Professor
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

This presentation reviews practical tools and methods for guiding students through an understanding of identity and bias definitions and connecting these concepts to the design process. Delivered in a workshop format, the approach combines identity reflection with design methods that foreground empathy and critical awareness. A central focus is the Empathy Points method, which challenges conventional assumptions about empathy in design. This method argues that genuine empathy requires shared lived experiences, applying this idea through the identification of overlapping social identity traits between designers and users. By leveraging the diverse experiences of design teams, group members can establish more authentic connections with users and increased inclusive solutions, particularly in contexts where students lack direct access to end users.

The workshop also emphasizes how implicit bias shapes design interpretations. Participants are guided through an examination of their biases in relation to their social identities. They assess how these align or diverge from user identities and connect the impact of user identities to the design problem. The process concludes with creating a strategic plan, by using team empathy points effectively while continuously checking for bias throughout the design process. Workshop outcomes will be revealed via classroom examples, results, and student reflection.

The integration of identity, empathy, and bias into design education equips students with tools to critically engage with users’ perspectives while remaining mindful of their own positionalities. By framing empathy as relational and grounded in shared experience, the Empathy Points method expands the potential for inclusive and socially responsive design practices.

This design research is presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 12.2: Annual CAA Conference 2026 (In-person only) on Thursday, February 19, 2026.

Experiments in Building Empathy and Revealing Bias

Rebecca Mushtare
Associate Professor Of Web Design & Multimedia
State University Of New York At Oswego

When left to our own devices, we unconsciously design for the audience we know best—ourselves. Although some traditional-aged college students have had travel opportunities or exposure to diverse cultures and communities, most still have limited life experience, which magnifies this tendency.  If inclusivity is an ethic we want our students to adopt as professionals,  we need to do more than read and talk about empathy and bias in the classroom. These values need to be embedded in our curriculum including how we frame assignments, the way we talk about design during critique, and our evaluation systems.

Overhauling an entire curriculum, or even a course, and starting from scratch is likely not an option for most faculty. Additionally, teaching empathy and implicit bias can be overwhelming for faculty who have not been trained,  and therefore do not have the language to confidently speak on the subject. What we can do, though, is make incremental changes in our classrooms that focus on raising awareness of assumptions we make and how our choices impact our audiences. Small changes can have real impact.

In this session, I will share the successes, failures and limitations of four years of experimentation and tinkering in the courses I teach combined with my own journey to become more aware of my blindspots and biases.

This research was presented at the Design Incubation Colloquium 4.0: SUNY New Paltz on September 9, 2017.