Design projects with the perspective of interaction in the weißensee product design department explore the potential of new technologies and identify new challenges for design: as the parameters in the world around us change, new questions and needs arise or priorities change. Recognizing these social and technological changes and their interactions is the basic prerequisite for developing meaningful, appropriate, and innovative design concepts. Appropriate means to be guided by the question itself and to first explore all possible alternatives without bias. Use is understood as an interactive process that must be understood and designed accordingly before design decisions can be made in terms of form and material.
Designing products and their behavior also means using appropriate simulation and prototyping methods or, if necessary, developing new ones. The Design Research Studio as an interface to the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity” and the eLAB – the laboratory for interactive technologies – allow new interaction concepts to be explored experimentally and familiar usage patterns to be questioned. Ideally, this process materializes a coherent product concept with corresponding relevance, which at best also contributes to the discourse of the design discipline.
Through the experience of collaborating with other disciplines (e.g. Coding IXD) and possibility studies for companies (Daimler, BMW), these projects contribute to preparing the next generation of designers to become productive in facilitating change and to have a positive influence on the shaping of our future.
