4th Dortmund Digital Design Symposium

13.45 - 14.00: Arrival, login and welcome

14.00 - 15.00: Session 1 / Experience and well-being in digital change

• David Gilbert: Experiencing for Change - Experiencing as a fundamental attitude in the design process
• Daniel Mawick: Well-being through digital design - opportunities and limits of digital solutions for the individual

15.00 - 15.10: Short coffee and changeover break

15.10 - 16.10: Session 2 / Observations from digitalization practice

• Ulf Banscherus: Digitization of university administration: The opposite of good is well-intentioned?
• Ragna Steenweg: More digitization! - Is more really better?

16.10 - 16.20: Short coffee and changeover break

16.20 - 17.20: Session 3 / Understanding transformation processes

• Gabriele Kunau(Opens in a new tab) : From Maslow's Hammer to the Technological Fix and back again
• Ingo Waclawczyk: Sociology - the underestimated superpower for understanding and shaping digital transformation?

17.20 - 18.00: Open discussion on the topics of the day (moderated by Kim Lauenroth(Opens in a new tab) )

Based on sociologist Hartmut Rosa's observation that the current social situation is characterized by a fundamental lack of resonance relationships, the central importance of experience for the design process in the digital age will be described.

The following aspects will be addressed here:

• Understanding the world and alienation in the digital age
• The "Timeless Way of Building" by Christopher Alexander
• Model of an experiential design process
• Experiential reference as a basic attitude
• Design artifacts as system form

Vita: David Gilbert is an honorary professor at the Faculty of Design, Computer Science and Media at Rhein-Main University of Applied Sciences and Lead Consultant for Digital Design & UX at DB Systel, the internal digital partner of Deutsche Bahn.

Digital solutions in various forms have long been part of everyday life. Nevertheless, it can be seen that digital products are not increasing the satisfaction of society, but in some cases even decreasing it. This presentation deals with a theoretical model that describes how people and digital solutions can be looked at more closely in order to promote individual well-being through holistic design. The evaluated model is based on insights from various disciplines such as philosophy, psychology and product design. It can serve as a guideline for paying more attention to the individuality of people and digital solutions.

Vita: Daniel Mawick is a Master's student of Business Informatics at Fachhochschule Dortmund and a working student at MaibornWolff. His studies, work and a longer stay abroad in Spain have shown him how diverse information systems and people are. He is enthusiastic about digital solutions that focus on people, allow their potential to unfold and thus represent sustainable value.

Initiatives to digitize administrative processes can currently be observed at many universities, which often lead to suboptimal results. This presentation will discuss the special features of (state) universities that can have an inhibiting effect on the desired optimization of administrative processes. The empirical basis for this are qualitative interviews on the work situation of employees in science-supporting areas.

Vita: Ulf Banscherus is a social and educational scientist. He heads the Cooperation Center for Science and the World of Work at TU Berlin and takes every opportunity to better understand universities and their development.

In a world flooded with digital innovations and technologies, we are faced with crucial questions: Do we actively shape digital change or do we simply let it happen? Do we strive for "more" digitalization? Or does it not make sense to focus and let less be more here too? In my presentation, I would like to use five key observations to encourage people to think about a shift from "more" to "less" and to focus on sustainable and well-thought-out digital solutions.

Vita: Ragna Steenweg is Head of Digital Design & Engineering at MaibornWolff. With a degree in computer science, she is passionate about bringing people and digital products together. Since 2019, she has been continuously shaping the digital design method box and is a trainer at the Digital Design School at MaibornWolff and responsible for training digital designers. She is particularly passionate about designing
projects together with clients to create visions, ideas, prototypes and sustainable digital solutions.

Maslow is credited with the observation that for those who have a hammer, the whole world is made of nails. The application of familiar methods is always obvious and is often discussed as a bias in UX design. My presentation goes one step further here: is a digital solution, no matter how good the user experience, fundamentally a correct solution? This quickly leads to the idea of the "technological fix". We will look at examples of digital technological fixes and ask ourselves what advantages and disadvantages arise with regard to the problem to be solved. Finally, we will look at the skills required to recognize and name the limits of our hammers.

Vita: Gabriele Kunau is Professor of Business Informatics at Fachhochschule Dortmund. Her minor in sociology during her studies, her doctorate in computer science & society, her many years of teaching in this field and the development of a master's program in digital design are the main sources for the sociological questions of technology in this lecture.

In my presentation at the Dortmund Digital Design Symposium #4, I would like to show what added value a sociological perspective can offer in order to discuss the question "Are we actively shaping digital change or is it just happening".

At first glance, it is surprising to think that a humanities discipline such as sociology can provide impetus for understanding a process that is often understood and thought of as a technical process by many stakeholders. However, sociology has always been concerned with technology and, in the case of digital technology, has also dealt with the social effects and influences on this process in parallel to the technical perspective.

In this lecture, I would like to report on how I, as a designer, have found access to the sociological perspective. And which of the aspects from this discipline I use specifically to both shape and utilize digital change in my complex everyday life as a UX professional and also as a citizen of this society.

Vita: Ingo Waclawczyk is a user experience manager and digital design professional. His focus is on the conception and implementation of complex digital solutions for insurance companies, public administration and energy supply, among others. For many years, he has been working on the question of how digital technology can be made more user-friendly, using the latest findings from sociology and psychology. He has been working as a UX manager at Capgemini since 2022.