We
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).
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In the home environment the integration of digital technology gets more and more important and there are plenty smart home technologies on the market: sensors and devices like smartphones and tablets get connected to conventional household appliances.
In collaboration with the Telekom Innovation Laboratories the design research lab involved potential user groups in the design of a smart home system to find out what individual needs potential customers have. The researchers used design methods to address topics like energy consumption, health, security and family communication with the people. They co-created services and concepts for a graphical user interface based on the users’ wishes that allow a user-friendly experience and interaction with a smart home system. It is integrated in everyday activities and take the users’ demands into account.