Changing the world by using empathy to solve the concrete needs of users is what moves the design and teaching approach of our new faculty member for the School of Art and 设计，Hye Jeong Park，博士.D.  

Park joined the university’s College of Performing and Visual 艺术 as an assistant professor for Graphic Design and Digital Art this past fall. 作为一名专业艺术家 and designer, she understands the difference between art and design. 她的研究, as well as her teaching, is heavily focused on the empathy designers need to have toward 用户 even before starting the creative design process.  

“艺术就是创造. Design is about creating for others, solving specific needs 来建设一个更美好的世界。. “Empathy is the very first step to understanding 用户. If we don’t fully understand the need of 用户, we will be creating something that can be aesthetically pleasing, but totally useless.“朴槿惠开始了她的职业生涯 in Korea, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in sculpture from Gachon University. Later, when she came to the United States to study for her Master of Fine 艺术 in Graphic Design at Iowa State University (ISU), she developed the idea of focusing on the interaction that a user has with an interface. 她皇冠app安卓下载安装医疗保健的论文 website visual information helped her better understand how a user interacts with graphic design, and how important it is to understand 用户 before any designing 努力.  

During her doctoral studies of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) at ISU, Park went a little further in understanding the need for empathy. 她的论文是皇冠app安卓下载安装 understanding empathy as a motivator to facilitate creative process in HCI.  

“Empathy is more than just trying to understand 用户,” 公园说. “发展 empathy, we have so many tools and technology. 一个想要创造基于的设计师 on the specific needs of 用户 will have to conduct surveys, organize interviews, facilitate user tests, create personas based on user profiles, analyze data, lead formal or informal interactions with 用户 and the interface, etc. 同理心就是 take other’s shoes, using the technological tools that we have available for that 目的.” 

Park is convinced that she needs to bring that perspective to the classroom in order to prepare the students to solve real-world needs.  

“I provide fun and interesting projects that are related to the real world’s issues and in-class activities for creative ideation, class engagement and collaboration,” 公园说. “At the end of the course, students come up with solutions for real people. My goal at the School of Art and Design is to help build more academic spaces that 是否专注于用户. Maybe one day I can coordinate a user experience program.”  

Donna Goodwin, director of UNC’s School of Art and Design and associate professor of Art 教育 is excited about the perspective Park brings to the classroom and 创意产生. 

“Her expertise will help our graphic design students be prepared to work with real-world design problems focusing on user-centered experience impacted by continuous technological 变化和用户不断变化的需求.”  

Park chose to come teach at UNC because she’s excited about the opportunities she 看到增长. 

“In other universities, it would be harder to propose ideas, but here, I find that there is a lot that we can do,” 公园说. “现在，我正在努力发展 the undergraduate programs and I’d like use some of the experience I bring with me to help develop graduate programs in the future.” 

Park thinks it is important that UNC brings international and diverse voices to teach and to provide a more complex vision for the university.  

“As an international designer and professor, I can see how much the university can benefit by bringing more diverse voices. There have been a lot of 努力s to build an inclusive campus, but we need more diversity. 我希望我的贡献 making in my field will help to bring more international students and professionals.” 公园的结论.  

Park taught Typography, Interactive Design, and 3D Design this fall and she will teach Intro to Motion Graphics and Senior Project courses in the spring. 她是 four new faculty members in UNC’s College of Performing and Visual 艺术 this fall. She was joined by Daniel Farr, associate Band director, and 音乐教育; Samuel Dong Saul, Graphic/Media Design; and Lelyn Chapin, associate Choral director, and 音乐教育. 

——作者:Carlos joss psamez Sámano