Before Creativity
A role-play toolkit for improving empathy for co-design
Xiaodi Tang, Junyao Li, Yufei Liu
Introduction
Co-design, as a popularly discussed design method, requires two main categories of design abilities. One is the ability to work with others as a team in a big group, and the other ability is the ability to be an individual designer, such as creativity, sketching, design thinking and so on. What makes co-design so special and useful is the previous part, which is the ability to work with others, especially with different stakeholders from different backgrounds with different styles of working, communication and value.
Based on an ongoing co-design case in Rotterdam, to maximise the benefits of the co-design session, we want to minimise potential obstacles during the session to improve its quality. The final toolkit design is based on the “co” capabilities; a lack of empathy could cause the biggest obstacle, such as misunderstanding, a conflict that would give a negative impact or even make co-design sessions fall into an infinite loop.
Co-Design for Community Futures
Resident-Driven Transformation of Rotterdam’s Het Lage Land
The Rotterdam Municipality is adopting a co-design approach to redevelop Het Lage Land for a sustainable, healthy, and inclusive future by 2040. Instead of imposing top-down technological solutions (e.g., smart homes, solar energy, robotic services), the project empowers resident ambassadors to collaborate equally with urban planners, employees, and other stakeholders in shaping the neighbourhood’s future. Through facilitated workshops, participants co-create solutions for welfare, housing, and care, ensuring that innovations align with real needs. This case study highlights the shift from expert-led planning to resident-centred design, using the example of a commercial district redesign to explore how co-design sessions can be optimised for meaningful community engagement.
Het Lage Land in Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Stakeholder - Diffuse designers
All these stakeholders are seen as diffuse designers but they all have their expertises in their fields which is the key point and meaning of the co-design. With the help of their rich and deep experiences integrated, co-design would have a huge impact on innovation.
Professional Designers
Business developers
Municipality representative
Local residents
Urban planners, architects, etc
Building Empathy Through Role-Play for Effective Co-Design
Effective co-design depends on two core capabilities: collaborative teamwork among diverse stakeholders and individual design skills such as creativity and problem-solving. A key challenge involves developing empathy, communication and conflict resolution skills among participants with different backgrounds and priorities. For instance, urban redesign projects often reveal tensions between architects' visions and residents' practical needs. Our solution introduces a pre-session empathy training module that enhances mutual understanding, serves as a stakeholder introduction, and can be easily adapted for various co-design projects, leading to more inclusive and productive collaboration.
Empathy, defined as the ability to deeply understand others' perspectives, proves challenging to develop without shared experiences. Role-play offers a practical approach by enabling participants to temporarily assume different stakeholder roles, helping them recognise the emotional and contextual factors behind potential conflicts. Designed as an engaging preparatory activity, this role-play method motivates participants by demonstrating its value for the upcoming co-design session. The approach builds essential empathy efficiently, requiring no special skills while fostering more effective collaboration focused on community-centred outcomes.
Before Creativity：A role-play toolkit
The training module we designed is an empathy training toolkit,which can guide people to conduct a role play session bythemselves.The role play session session is divided into three phases includingintroduction and role exchange, act out and reflection anddiscussion.The toolkit will be used by participants and facilitators and both ofthem are from stakeholders recruited in the co-design session(diffuse designers). It contains booklets for participants, bookletsfor facilitators, DIY props kits, and role cards.
Phase 1: Introduction and role exchanges
Step 1 + Step 2 in the booklet
This 25-minute structured exercise begins with a facilitator introduction followed by the distribution of prepared materials containing randomised role assignments, contextual scenarios, and specific tasks (e.g., "As a customer, shop for family dinner ingredients"). Participants receive 15 minutes to review their roles and create simple props using the provided booklet guides, ensuring active engagement while reinforcing role immersion. The carefully designed tasks offer clear action frameworks while maintaining authentic interaction space, with randomised role distribution preventing bias and scenario-based activities making abstract perspectives tangible. This time-bound approach combines guided structure with creative flexibility to effectively simulate real-world stakeholder experiences.
Phase 2: Act out!
Step 3 in the booklet
After they prepared, participants started to act out their roles by using the props they made and the task list. During this stage, they can not ask for extra help unless it happens in normal life. Meanwhile, the phase 2 act-out section would be recorded by the facilitators for further reflection and discussion.
Phase 3: Reflection and discussion
Step 4 in the booklet
After participants finish their role-play tasks, the facilitator will guide them to review the video and share their interesting findings and opinions about the whole process. Participants will be triggered to think by answering the questions like ‘Do you think the person who acts your original role well?’‘How do you feel when you act as another person?’‘Did you have an awkward moment while you were acting? Why?’ by facilitators. After that, participants can write down their recommendations to others about how they act the roles on the post-its, which are provided inside the booklets and given to others.
The Toolkit
