Empathic encounters – Co-designing possibilities for a good life

This short paper presents a design competition case study in which the aim was to design concepts for maintaining a good lifein small villages in northern Finland. The research aim was to findhow two collaborating groups, namely students and the residents of the village, experienced empathy during the two-month co-designprocess. The initial findings show that different aspects of empathyare needed and emphasized during the different co-design phases. In the context of co-design, it makes sense to operate in an empathic way; for designer, though, it is also valuable to know when to focus on the building, support, or communication of empathy.