

The Widening Empathy Gap
Join Sydney’s IxDF community at Dovetail (Surry Hills) for an evening exploring one of the most important tensions in design today: if design thinking promised to bring us closer to real people, why do so many of our processes now seem to keep us at a safe distance from them?
The event features a talk with Parsim Kaushik, PhD, Senior UX Researcher at LexisNexis. With a background in UX research, consumer psychology, and strategic insight, Parsim will share reflections on what happens when empathy becomes a method rather than a real, ongoing practice, and what this means for the way we design products, services, and experiences.
This session will invite us to think more critically about the gap between process and people, and what we may lose when empathy is reduced to a framework instead of something lived and relational.
Schedule
5.30–6.00 pm Welcome
6.00–6.30 pm Talk
6.30–7.30 pm Mini workshop
7.30–8.00 pm Wrap-up + networking
Whether you’re a designer, researcher, strategist, or simply curious about human-centred practice, this is a great chance to reflect, learn something new, and connect with the local community.
👉 Reserve your spot, space is limited.