6th. semester
Special focus formation

The main project in the sixth semester is usually a cooperation with a renowned company such as Bosch, BSH Hausgeräte, Braun, Deutsche Telekom and Dräger. However, students are also free to choose their own visionary project topics. Here, the subject areas are diverse: health care, consumer goods, sustainability or medicine. For example, in the last few semesters topics have ranged from razors to hammer drills, from water supplies in crisis areas to workers' safety underground, from medical infusion systems to shock absorbers...
... and in the coming semester, something new and completely different - but always something exciting!

Through the project, the design process is further practiced and extended: from research and identification of potentials to design and the final result.

Most projects are confidential and cannot therefore be shown publicly.

Besides an understanding of the way in which technical construction is integrated into the design and product development process, this module is concerned with traditional ergonomics (the human-machine interface), as well as basic concepts of GUI (Graphical User Inter-face). Products of low and medium complexity are used to develop understanding and realistically professional skills.

The module provides a key qualification at the interface of product development and product ergonomics.

In addition to the integration of the focal points above into a classical product development process, the interdependence of materials, construction, manufacturing, and usability is tackled early on in the research and conception phases and set in overall relation to the desired design outcome. Discussion and evaluation focus on the need for transferable criteria that are valid across the whole course and at the same time train students in the critique of their own work.

Lehrveranstaltungen

• Concurrent Design and Engineering
• Angewandte Ergonomie

Modulbeauftragter
Prof. Andreas Kalweit

Industrial design is an interface discipline in which communication is of great importance. Using practical examples, the module conveys the fundamentals of product language, communications theory and perceptual psychology. It aims to heighten awareness of formal charac-teristics and the ability to describe them in practical contexts. The overall emphasis is on applications.

In this module students learn to perceive formal characteristics more consciously and to describe them in a target-oriented and compre-hensible way.

• development of linguistic sensitivity and competence
• recognition of formal and textual archetypes
• development of perceptive abilities
• development of critical and expressive language
• development of individual expression
• extended knowledge of technical and/or business English.

Courses

• Product presentation
  · Design criticism
  · Communications theory
  · Web publishing
  · Technical English
  · Business English

Module Director
Prof. Matthias Schönherr

Dieser Kurs fördert die Fähigkeit, durch Design zukunftsorientierte und nachhaltige Lösungen zu entwickeln. Studierende erlernen, wie sie Techniken und Theorien zur sozialen, technischen und kulturellen Nachhaltigkeit anwenden können, um nachhaltige Designstrategien zu entwickeln und Verantwortung in einer globalisierten Welt zu übernehmen. Das Ergebnis kann eine Zeitschrift sein, eine Ausstellung oder ein wissenschaftliches Paper.

Inhalte sind u.a.
Empirische Designforschungsarbeit.
Methoden der Transformationsforschung, z. B. durch LivingLabs und Designpartizipation.
Darstellung von Ergebnissen für inter- und transdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit.