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Design Talk 2, 2020. Carina Haumering, Tobias Stuntebeck, Prof. Dr. Ing. Petra K. Schäfer, Stephan Ott, © Christof Jakob
Carina Haumering, Tobias Stuntebeck, Prof. Dr. Ing. Petra K. Schäfer, Stephan Ott. Photo: © Christof Jakob

The second Design Talk in 2020: on mobility design

Design Talk 2, 2020. Stephan Ott und Carina Haumering, © Christof Jakob
Stephan Ott and Carina Haumering. Photo: © Christof Jakob

When it comes to research projects and the study of other complex questions, the quality of the results always improves when different perspectives and disciplines work together in a team. For the Institute for Design Research and Appliance (IfDRA) at the German Design Council, such perspectives can include various stakeholders from businesses, academia and design. The participation of users, too, has a positive effect on the design of relevant solutions.

A transdisciplinary approach also enriches everyday work, according to Professor Petra K. Schäfer, Tobias Stuntebeck and Carina Haumering. They were the three speakers for the second Design Talk, which took place on 28 October and looked at the subject of “Mobility Design – from the White Cane to Data-Optimised Logistics”; Stephan Ott, director of the IfDRA, once again acted as moderator.

As with the first of the 2020 Design Talks, on Medical Design, you now have the possibility to watch the event video in its full length exclusively on our YouTube channel:

The speakers also continually present projects and products on the subject of transport and mobility to depict scenarios that significantly influence everyday life and cityscapes for all of us. What’s more, their discussion contains a great deal of interesting insights that can occasionally be translated into your own working environment, even if your job does not involve working with transport or mobility.

The current coronavirus situation and the changes associated with it are adding an additional layer of urgency to transport and mobility and offer a basis for changes that were barely conceivable just a few months ago. Against this background, transport and mobility influence more than just the way we move around; they now also simultaneously incorporate the immobile domain, like when people work from home, and the design possibilities associated with that.

Design Talk 2, 2020. Prof. Dr. Ing. Petra K. Schäfer, © Christof Jakob
Prof. Dr. Ing. Petra K. Schäfer. Photo: © Christof Jakob
Design Talk 2, 2020. Tobias Stuntebeck, © Christof Jakob
Tobias Stuntebeck. Photo: © Christof Jakob

This year, the Design Talks event series is being organised and moderated for the first time by the newly established Institute for Design Research and Appliance (IfDRA). Drawing on concrete case studies from the fields of medicine, mobility and digital transformation, the event series offers insights into the world of design research. Design research should not be regarded as a self-contained discipline, rather, it can also help to illustrate the value that companies can add to their commercial success through design research.


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The third and last Design Talk took place on 18 November 2020 under the title Digital Design – From User Experience to Visual Strategy. Together with Prof. Julian Adenauer and Sebastian Schulz, the discussion focused on how digital design differs from classic (analogue) design and what contribution design can make to digitalisation in general.

In our first Design Talk “Designers in the operating theatre” in September 2020, we talked witht Olaf Barski, Dr. Nicole Busch and Jonas Rehn-Groenendijk about design and research projects in the field of Health & Care.

Learn more about the Design Talks.


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