Materiality as a mediator of empathy through culture-based product design for tourism

This chapter investigates the role of materiality as a mediator of empathy through culture-based design by exploring the meanings that are associated with reindeer in product design. It adopts a culture- and material-based approach, which involves reflecting on how interactions amongst cultures can be recast as a resource in product design, specifically in the context of tourism. The use of materiality to facilitate empathy in culture-based design provides designers with tools to enhance self- and wider cultural understandings through their complex making and social environments. The chapter draws on methods such as workshops and participant observation. The chapter presents a theoretical framework for empathic design in tourist-focused products, which is developed from concepts borrowed from culture-based product design, and Leonardi’s concept of materiality that includes multisensory experiences of materials.