The Design Research Lab is a network of people, organisations, and non-human agents engaged at the intersection of technologies, materials, and social practices. Our aim is to design socially and ecologically sustainable tools, spaces, and knowledge that support people’s participation in a digital society – based on common principles of inclusiveness and respect for the planet. This puts the basic democratic right to take part in the digital sphere into practice. We start our research from individual lifeworlds and the needs of minoritized groups, beyond consumer majorities.
We are an interdisciplinary team of designers, researchers, tech-enthusiasts and critical thinkers from Berlin University of the Arts, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, as well as Einsteincenter Digital Future (ECDF).
ToCaro - Emotionen teilen durch gemeinsames Erleben
Material Interactions
INNOVADE: Digital Democracy for a Changing World. A new European initiative to make online civic participation secure, inclusive and effective.
Digital Sovereignty
Digital Studies
Social Design
The publication aims at empowering design educators, as well as students, NGOs, and other stakeholders to advance social design practices.
Digital Sovereignty
Social Design
What is meaningful change? What does collaboration mean and how can we work towards more inclusive and just futures? The podcast critically discusses aspects that arise in social design, i.e. power asymmetries, temporalities, safe grounds for co-learning and new understandings of knowledge and knowledge production.
Digital Sovereignty
Social Design
The LaLaMo project aims to explore if LLM capabilities built with humans-in-the-loop perform better than those without.
Digital Studies
Development of an augmented reality (AR) model and application visualizing an animated interpreter for German sign language (DGS)
Material Interactions
Social Design
Data Physicalization as a Design Tool for Science Communication
Material Interactions
Social Design
The Ecological Self: Integrating Body Materials and Cycles into the Design Process
Material Interactions
Critical Making + Designing
Digital Sovereignty
Gender Studies
Material Interactions
Objecting the Objectionable: Normative Obscenification of Gender and Sexuality in Digital Governance
Kompaktkurs: Designmethoden in der Praxis / Design Methods in Practice
Teaching
Workshops
24.09.–02.10.25; 10:00-17:00h
Designmethoden in der Praxis / Design Methods in Practice Hannah Friederike Fischer & Katharina Lorenz
Kompaktkurs Designmethoden Dates: 24.09. – 02.10.25 (on site 29.9. – 02.10.25; 10:00 – 17:00h) Kick Off Meeting: 24.09.25, 10:00 – 11:00h online Location: Design Research Lab, Seminar Room 215, 2nd floor, Einsteinufer 43 Registration: Please send an email with your name, matriculation number & study program / semester to Joanna Cywinska at ; please note that there are limited places available Registration deadline: 17.09.2025
DE:
Im Kompaktkurs „Designmethoden in der Praxis“ beleuchten wir die verschiedenen Phasen eines partizipativen Designprozesses und geben einen Überblick über zentrale Methoden wie beispielsweise Co-Design Workshops, Interviews, Fragebögen und Usabilitytests, sowie kreative Techniken zur Ideen- und Konzeptentwicklung. Im Rahmen eines „Mini-Designprozesses“ werden wir die verschiedenen Phasen des Designprozesses exemplarisch durchlaufen. In kleinen Teams werden wir die Methoden an konkreten Anwendungsfällen erproben, reflektieren und diskutieren. Gerne können eigene Projektideen – etwa aus laufenden Semesterprojekten oder Abschlussarbeiten – eingebracht werden.
Hannah Friederike Fischer arbeitet als Produktdesignerin und wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Deutschen Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) mit Fokus auf partizipatives Design und qualitative Forschungsmethoden im Bereich Mensch-Technik-Interaktion, insbesondere bei Smart Textiles und Wearables. Katharina Lorenz ist ebenfalls Produktdesignerin und wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am DFKI und an der TU Berlin und verfügt über rund zehn Jahre Erfahrung in der Entwicklung interaktiver Mensch-Technik-Schnittstellen, vor allem im Gesundheitsbereich.
EN:
In the compact course “Design Methods in Practice”, we will examine the various phases of a participative design process and provide an overview of key methods such as co-design workshops, interviews, questionnaires and usability tests, as well as creative techniques for developing ideas and concepts. We will go through the various exemplary phases of the design process as part of a mini project during the course. In small teams, we will test, reflect on and discuss the methods using specific use cases. You are welcome to bring in your own project ideas – for example from current semester projects or final theses.
Hannah Friederike Fischer works as a product designer and research associate at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) with a focus on participatory design and qualitative research methods in the field of human-technology interaction, particularly in the area of smart textiles and wearables. Katharina Lorenz is also a product designer and research associate at DFKI and TU Berlin and has around ten years of experience in the development of interactive human-technology interfaces, particularly in the healthcare sector.
