The current technological trends demonstrate one thing above all: AI-driven products, robotics and natural interaction are at the heart of innovation. A robot vacuum cleaner with a gripper arm, an AI assistant that moves freely around the home or a children’s toy that recognizes people and objects. This seems like something from another world and leaves many people with mixed feelings. Never before has technology changed our interaction with products so fundamentally.

In a future in which we communicate with objects more and more naturally, key design questions are coming into focus: How can autonomous, proactive products be designed responsibly? To what extent can technology feel “human”? And in which areas of application is there the greatest potential for self-thinking & self-acting products? Digital design is no longer limited to screens - it is increasingly becoming a central element of product design.

In this project course, students focused in particular on the question: How should products be designed when the inanimate object becomes a partner? And which use cases can actually be meaningful, responsible and problem-solving applications for “living products”.