ManneqKit: A Kinesthetic Empathic Design Tool for Communicating Depression Experiences through Postures and Vignettes

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While depression is a mood disorder with significant societal impact, the experiences of people living with depression are yet not easy to access. HCI’s tenet to understand users, particularly addressed by the empathic design approach, has prioritized verbal communication of such experiences. We introduce ManneqKit, a kinesthetic empathic design tool consisting of 15 cards with bodily postures and vignettes leveraging the nonverbal aspects of depression experiences. We report the co-design of ManneqKit with 10 therapists, its piloting with 4 therapists and 10 non-therapists, and evaluation through design workshops with 9 interaction designers and 3 therapists. Findings describe metaphorical descriptions of depression experiences and their postures, as well as cards’ ability to elicit strong empathy. We discuss the value of these findings for interaction design in terms of novel empathic design tools capturing nonverbal qualities of lived experiences, support for richer understanding of vulnerable users experiencing depression, design ideation underpinned by ethical values, and the need to balance empathy with distancing for designers’ wellbeing.