Immersive empathy

Immersive empathy describes an approach in which learners immerse themselves in the reality of a particular group in order to explore the wishes and needs of this group, to understand problems from the user's perspective or to become aware of the background and motives of users.

Idea:

The core idea is to directly relive various experiences with the help of a simulated environment. Through this form of self-awareness, the realities of life of different target groups can be recreated and the relevance of target group-specific content can be sharpened.

Variations:

1. For example, to understand some of the challenges faced by travelers with reduced mobility, an airline's service team can travel through all the stations on a flight in a wheelchair and thus better identify potential barriers.
2. Virtual reality: holding a meeting in a conference room, giving a speech in a theater, or guiding visitors through a gallery of digital artworks - VR creates virtual environments in which they are completely immersed. The virtual spaces can be transmitted and designed using VR glasses, but also via a monitor.
3. Augmented reality: augmented reality integrates virtual objects into our real world - for example via a smartphone that we use to film our surroundings. In a museum, for example, learners can point the camera at a painting and call up information in the form of virtual objects.
4. Role play: in a role play, learners slip into a given role and thereby take on new perspectives. This promotes understanding of different points of view.
5. Simulation: through simulations, sequences of actions and their consequences can be imitated in a safe environment and with feedback.

This short slide deck from IDEO U describes various exercises on Immersive Empathy:
https://www.slideshare.net/raquelvalongofelix/designing-an-immersive-empathy-experience-how-might-we-gather-insights-and-inspiration-to-design-products-and-services-for-the-modern-70-year-old-ideo-u-insights-for-innovation

This article provides opportunities, forms and examples of immersive learning methods: Immersives Lernen - definition, Bedeutung und Beispiele - Glossar - Bildungs-Plattform Lectera