Reconnect. Empathy mapping in the era of COVID-19

In this paper, we present an exploratory study conducted during the first-year product design course at the University of Palermo aimed at developing a new version of the empathy map (Empathy Map 5 Senses - EM5S) after the COVID-19 outbreak. The research had two main goals: focus freshmen students’ attention on senses that have been temporarily excluded because of social distancing and masks, and collect data about the importance of every single purpose and how their presence changes the quality of familiar experiences such as commuting to work, working, having lunches and dinners, having fun and taking care of themselves. From the first sample of 210 EM5S, data shows the different roles of…