What is it

hello empathy is a conversation card game to deepen empathy through meaningful conversations, for designers to be more inclusive in their design. We discovered that meaningful spatial design can be branched into 3 aspects: mental space, emotional space and physical space. With the awareness of these 3 design aspects, we believe that designers and co-designers will have a common platform to co-design together, amplifying inclusive spaces for all communities.

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Why it matters

"If you can design for the Autism community well, you can design well for anyone." – Andre Tan, Xopo Design

We believe that there is a lack in knowledge and understanding of the needs for persons with disabilities as well as their experience of a space and this lack in knowledge inhibits designers or anyone to design well. The myriad types of disabilities lead to challenges at different life stages and transitions, arising from different care needs. Invisible disabilities including that of autism is one of the bigger gaps that needs bridging in social understanding. And thus, the game was driven and developed through understanding our autism community in Singapore.

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Backed by research

As recipient of the Good Design Research Grant, supported by DesignSingapore Council, we embarked on a 1-year design research with prototype development to enhance the quality of spatial design for the persons with autism, by deepening designers' capacity to design well, through understanding the autism community in Singapore. hello empathy is the outcome from this research, to empower designers and co-designers to be able to dive into the depths of inclusive and personalised designs for persons with autism, through an empathetic design journey, suitable for designers, co-designers or even friends who just want to have a conversation. This game would not have been possible without the engagement through the research and prototype workshops with volunteer designers, social agencies, persons with autism and their caregivers.