Empathic Design

Process

 
 
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Empathy

makes

good

business

Studio Weber + Associates is a design studio focused on creating products and experiences that respond to the human condition. For more than two decades, our team has been applying human-centered research to the principles of design to gain the empathy necessary to represent the end user. In other words, we earn the right to design.


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Our

process

Build to learn,

fail

fast

SWA still finds inspiration in the ideas of our early studio partner, Bill Stumpf, the legendary industrial designer. While Bill’s philosophy of putting people first in design shapes the way we approach each project today, his partnership with Jeff has been instrumental to our process.

When faced with a design challenge, we build to learn. It’s our opinion that you can spend all day theorizing about almost anything, but building a physical model can quickly advance your knowledge on the subject. You have the opportunity to make it, iterate, and test its physics.

We’ve been doing an awful lot of this knowledge building over the years. It goes into everything we do. In our experience, it’s not about the beginning (or the ending, for that matter). It’s what we’re learning in the middle that makes all the difference.


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Arts

of

daily

living

Design plays a central role in everyone’s lives. Whether playing, working or learning, it’s design that makes it possible. SWA designs for the real world by thoughtfully transforming everyday experiences with products that leave a lasting impression.


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Truth +

Beauty

A few key principles guide our work. Chief among them sits squarely at the intersection of Truth and Beauty. We build to learn. We apply art to science. We blur form and function with intent — to deliver solutions that provide tangible human benefits in aesthetically pleasing ways.