Empathy in Design
From rides that fit a wide range of sizes to including quiet rooms to ensuring new exhibits have authentic representation and can stand the test of time, empathy plays a huge role in the design of attractions. Empathy in the design process allows authentic, representative, and inclusive designs. That translates to the attraction experience. It welcomes our guests—all guests—and provides a sense of belonging. Understanding empathy and its role in recognizing and honoring diverse perspectives and experiences can lead to a more inclusive attraction.
For a quick explanation of empathy, check out this video from Brené Brown. It’s based on research by Professor Theresa Wiseman on the fundamentals of empathy.
Empathy also allows us to look at inequity—backgrounds, transportation options, accessibility, and privilege and see how those factors might impact our ability to be diverse and inclusive. It allows us to discover WHY visitors may not feel welcome or included and why they may have lower satisfaction when they visit. It will enable a look outside the entry gate to see how, when, and why a guest chooses to visit… or stay away.
Rosey Masek, PGAV Project Leader, says, “How can I make the difficult parts of the journey easier? I WANT to think about what that single mom of twins needs to enjoy her day. I want to make the dad of an autistic teen feel comfortable. After all, I want everyone to feel like they were catered to and enjoyed their visit, so they want to return.”
Attractions are storytellers. Empathy plays a role in the story. Masek explains, “Designers need empathy for the guests, but there’s an additional layer. We also want the guests to empathize with the characters in our thematic story. We need them to feel like they can relate to the animal, the struggling main character, and even the villain. The more they relate to their surroundings, the more involved they are with the journey. And the more involved they are, the more they can have an emotional connection.
Let’s look at a few examples where designing with empathy could improve the visitor experience:
This is a comment that a zoo guest made in response to a question for our publication, Voice of the Visitor (VOV). “Let's take the entrance area to the Chinese monkeys as an example. The architecture is irrelevant to the rest of the exhibit. It is shaped like a palace/temple with some Chinese art. None of it provides any context to Chinese culture in relation to monkeys or adds to the experience of learning about the monkeys. To be perfectly clear, I am not gravely offended by this. But it doesn't make me WANT to go see this exhibit even though I'm Chinese and I love things related to my culture; in fact, I actively avoided the area due to the decorations during my first two visits to the zoo. If Chinese architecture and art are to be used as decoration, I believe they should be selected with intention and with context. A caricature of the culture may have been appropriate in 1998, but it is less useful today.”
While people of color account for 40% of the U.S. population, they only account for 27% of attraction visitors (VOV2023.) That’s a wide gap. Why are people of color less frequent visitors to attractions?
The Americans with Disabilities Act was groundbreaking but hasn’t been updated since 2008. The way people access the world has changed, including with apps and websites, but the laws have not kept pace.
“Everyone wants to be heard. They want their struggles to be validated. They want their joys to be shared. We are such a social species, but sometimes it’s difficult to remember that everyone wants a human connection. Designing with empathy FOR this human connection is how we can satisfy our guests and encourage them to return,” Masek shared.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore empathy and its impact on designing attractions, including using audience research to help understand our guests and avoid cultural appropriation.
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