Human-Centered Interior Design: A Guide to Empathetic Spaces

Human-centered interior design starts with the people who will use a space, not with a style. It means understanding who they are, what they do there and what gets in their way, then designing layout, light, sound, comfort and access around that, and checking the result with real use. An empathetic space is one that works for the widest range of those people, including the ones most easily overlooked.

Studio Gascoigne is an Auckland interior and retail architecture studio. This guide explains the principles and shows how they play out in stores, workplaces and hospitality spaces the studio has designed.

Key Takeaways

• Base the design on an explicit understanding of the people, their tasks and the setting.
• Involve the people who will use the space throughout the project, not just at the end.
• Test the design against real use and refine it. Treat the first layout as a draft.
• Access, wayfinding, comfort, light and sound are where empathy shows up in an interior.
• Design for different people in the same room: a hurried traveller, an older visitor, a staff member on a long shift.

What Is Human-Centered Interior Design?

The term comes from product and software design. The international standard ISO 9241-210 describes human-centred design as an approach that makes systems usable and useful by focusing on users, their needs and requirements. The standard is written for interactive systems. These practical principles also help in interiors:

1. Understand users, tasks and environment. Who uses the space, what they are trying to do and what the site allows.
2. Involve users throughout. Clients, staff and customers shape the design at each stage.
3. Refine the design through evaluation with users. Test layouts, routes and details against how people actually behave.
4. Work iteratively. Refine the design as you learn, rather than locking in the first idea.

In interiors, “empathetic” design puts extra weight on feeling: noticing stress, confusion or discomfort in a space and designing it out. “Sympathetic” design is a different idea, covered below.

Is Sympathetic Design the Same as Empathetic Design?

No. In building conservation, sympathetic design describes new work that responds to an existing building and its setting. It does not have to copy the old style: The Building Conservation Directory notes that a contemporary approach can also be sympathetic. Empathetic design is about the people in the space; sympathetic design is about the building and its context. Good projects often need both.

At R&G Newmarket, for example, the fit-out kept the existing store’s shell and services, and the shopfront was retained with a recoloured facade and a new timber door, while most of the fixtures inside were found objects chosen for a pop-up feel.

Human-Centered Design Principles in Practice

Make the space easy to find your way around

Confusion is the first thing people feel in a badly planned space. At Smiths City, circulation was clarified with angled “Avenues” and “Lanes” so customers could move between and within departments, each department was marked with different coloured flooring, and a central service hub made it easy for customers and staff to find each other. At Kiwi Discovery at Auckland Airport, the brief called for explicit signage for often hurried, non-English-speaking customers.

Design for access from the start

An empathetic space works for people using wheelchairs, prams or walking aids, and for people with low vision or hearing. In New Zealand, public buildings must meet the Building Code’s access requirements (clause D1, which refers to NZS 4121). Treat those as a minimum and design the experience around them, rather than adding a ramp at the end. Studio Gascoigne’s registered architects handle Building Code compliance as part of the architecture service.

Plan for comfort, not just looks

Seats people can sit in for an hour, surfaces that are pleasant to touch and rooms that are warm enough all count. For homes, the World Health Organization’s housing and health guidelines also cover indoor temperature.

Use daylight and views where you can

Daylight and a view outside are widely valued, but be honest about the evidence. A review of research by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concludes that, given the small number and mixed results of studies, no firm conclusions can yet be drawn about how daylight or views affect school or office work performance. Design for daylight because people prefer it and it saves energy, not because of a headline productivity figure.

Control noise

Hard floors, glass and concrete make rooms lively but loud. Soft surfaces, timber slats and acoustic panels bring noise down to a level where people can talk and concentrate. Plan quieter zones in workplaces and cafes for people who need them.

Respect culture and context

Human-centered design notices who the space is for. Popo Dumplings at Auckland Airport was designed partly for travellers from Asia who struggle to find familiar food, with an old-style Chinese restaurant feel and a bilingual English and Mandarin logo. Icebreaker‘s airport store uses New Zealand pine, stone tiles evoking South Island schist and a wall of real New Zealand moss so departing tourists experience the country as well as the product.

Keep it adaptable

People’s needs change. When Studio Gascoigne designed its own office, it combined simple lines and white surfaces with quirky but easily changeable elements, so the space could shift with the team. Flexible furniture, movable screens and simple services routes make later change cheaper.

What Makes a Room Feel Empathetic?

An empathetic room anticipates what people will need before they have to ask. These details from Studio Gascoigne projects show what that looks like in practice:

• Remove barriers between staff and customers. At Wright’s Jewellers in Pukekohe, the new display counters are open underneath to increase the sense of space and reduce the sense of separation between staff and customer.
• Give people somewhere to wait. At Honda Newmarket, the brief added a customer lounge where people can wait to pick up their cars, plus a small work space for customers while their cars are serviced.
• Make choices easy to compare. At Carpet Court Albany, most samples were made the same size so customers could mix them into mood boards, and the usual tiered displays were replaced with holders that let samples be compared easily.
• Do not make people feel trapped. The Comvita kiosk at Auckland International Airport was designed more like a pop-up market stall, deliberately encouraging customers to walk through without feeling trapped.
• Care about the private moments. For Trelise Cooper in Wellington, customer experience was paramount, from the welcoming entry to the comfortable fitting rooms.

A quick test for any room: can a first-time visitor see where to go, find somewhere to sit or wait, reach what they need and talk to staff without a barrier in the way?

Human-Centric Design for Homes, Workplaces and Shops

Human-Centred Office Design

In a workplace, the people to design for are staff doing very different kinds of work across a long day. That usually means a mix of open and closed space that people can change themselves, good acoustics and furniture that adjusts.

At Republik’s Auckland office, Studio Gascoigne handled both the architecture and the interior design. Glazed rooms run along a corridor, and sliding timber walls let a meeting room open up to the wider office or close off when a team needs privacy. Perforated plywood sliding panels divide the floor elsewhere. When the studio fitted out its own office, the work had to be completed in two weeks, and the brief was a stylish yet practical and comfortable space with easily changeable elements.

Claims that a particular layout lifts retention or cognitive output deserve care. On daylight and views, for example, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory review concludes that no firm conclusions can yet be drawn about their effect on office work performance. Design for comfort and choice, then ask staff what is working. For layout options, see our guide to office layout ideas.

How to Apply Human-Centered Design to Your Project

1. Watch and ask. Spend time in the current space. Talk to staff and customers or family members about what frustrates them.
2. Write down who the space serves. Include the people easiest to forget: visitors with disabilities, older people, cleaners, delivery drivers.
3. Map the journeys. Arrival, finding the way, the main task, leaving. Mark where people hesitate or get stuck.
4. Test early. Walk the plan with the people who will use it, mark layouts on the floor and try furniture before buying it.
5. Check after moving in. Ask again a few months later, and adjust.

Studio Gascoigne builds client input into every stage of its five-stage design process, with sign-off checkpoints so the people paying for and using the space shape it throughout. More on that in our guide to interior design collaboration. If your team already uses the Design Council’s Double Diamond, the first two steps sit in its Discover and Define phases, and testing and checking after moving in sit in Develop and Deliver.

Common Mistakes

• Designing for the photo instead of the people using the room every day.
• Treating access as a compliance item added at the end.
• Asking for feedback only once the design is finished.
• Designing for an average user who does not exist.
• Ignoring staff, who often spend more time in the space than anyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Design psychology
• Emotional design
• Empathetic design
• Human-centered interiors
• Inclusive spaces
• Interior design principles

Mark Gascoigne

Principal of Studio Gascoigne, a registered architect with more than 25 years' hands-on experience designing commercial spaces in New Zealand and overseas. Meet the team.