Structuring Empathy in Post-Human-Centered Design: A Comparative Framework for Entity Representations

In recent years, the role of design has evolved beyond usability and user satisfaction, aiming to address complex social, ethical, and ecological challenges. This shift calls for a critical update to conventional Human-Centered Design (HCD) methods, grounded in ethical and inclusive approaches and post-human-centered perspectives. This study proposes a conceptual framework to explore how three types of entity representations— real individuals, personas, and AI-generated personas (AI personas)—influence the perceived depth and structure of empathy in design. Drawing from existing literature, the framework uses journey maps as a shared analytical lens through which to reflect on how each representation type may influence empathy-related insights in design contexts. Rather than treating empathy as a purely emotional reaction, this study reinterprets empathy as a cognitive and interpretive process shaped by the prior experiences and contextual understanding of design stakeholders. This study provides a conceptual foundation to support future empirical investigations into how representational differences influence the formation of empathy in inclusive, insight-driven design practices.