By Melvin Morales
Industrial Design ’18
Storytelling is crucial in all areas of design. One of the main points about storytelling is empathy. Empathy is an important product of good storytelling. By creating characters or relatable points in a story and empathizing with them, designers are able to better communicate about and with their target audience. Empathy may even work the other way around by helping the designer convey a message or feeling to the user. Everyone can relate to something—a powerful story and message can become beneficial for any design project.
Put yourself in situations that allow you to learn and gain as many experiences as possible. At the end of the day, we are designing a better world. Your designs should be human-centered. As a designer, you will earn that you have a social responsibility to create a better world for those who need it most. The experiences you have in life allow you to empathize with others.
My favorite project was my senior thesis, SupplyAid. SupplyAid is a service that connects different companies, local government, and people by coordinating relief goods using an emergency kit to provide assistance to those affected by natural disasters. I focused on disaster relief because my family was directly affected by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. I wanted to see how design could create value and change the experience by those affected.
Melvin Morales is a marketing designer at First Family Insurance in Fort Myers, Fla. The text above originally appeared on STEAMboston.com.
