Nancy Birkhölzer and Prof. Reto Wettach © Gerhard Kassner
Nancy Birkhölzer
Nancy is the managing partner at IXDS, responsible for enabling a brilliant team to do hands-on future development with clients. Previous to IXDS, Nancy established Fjord's Service Design Academy. In her global leadership role she focused on thought-leadership, training and organisational transformation across Fjord teams and within client organisations, building on her experience from founding and managing Fjord’s Berlin studio for four years. Nancy co-hosted this years National Service Design Network Conference, frequently teaches & lectures on Service Design and was recently recognised as one of the "100 Women of the Future" by Deutschland – Land der Ideen. She studied at the Köln International School of Design as well as the Rhode Island School of Design and has more than 12 years professional experience in designing digital services.
Prof. Reto Wettach
Reto is the founder and design director at IXDS, responsible for the overall design strategy. He is a Professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, where he teaches “Physical Interaction Design” and researches innovative, bodily-focused approaches to Human-computer interaction. Reto has previously worked as an Associate Professor with the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, and as a designer/researcher with Sony in Tokyo and Ideo in San Francisco. He studied Industrial Design at UdK Berlin and Mechanical Engineering at TU Berlin. Prior to his studies, Reto had an apprenticeship as a stonemason in Southern Germany.
Showing a handful of interesting examples such as a credit card machine that, while swiping your card, increases the friction based on how much money is being transferred, a New York City bakery with an oven that tweets whatever just finished baking, and DriveNow, a car sharing service who’s success is attributed to both the analog and digital aspects of the company, they explained how there is a gap between the two realms which we haven’t done enough to close.
The challenge now, is for Designers to bring the two worlds closer together which will inevitably influencing the way we incorporate technology into our lives.
Nancy Birkhölzer
Nancy is the managing partner at IXDS, responsible for enabling a brilliant team to do hands-on future development with clients. Previous to IXDS, Nancy established Fjord's Service Design Academy. In her global leadership role she focused on thought-leadership, training and organisational transformation across Fjord teams and within client organisations, building on her experience from founding and managing Fjord’s Berlin studio for four years. Nancy co-hosted this years National Service Design Network Conference, frequently teaches & lectures on Service Design and was recently recognised as one of the "100 Women of the Future" by Deutschland – Land der Ideen. She studied at the Köln International School of Design as well as the Rhode Island School of Design and has more than 12 years professional experience in designing digital services.
Prof. Reto Wettach
Reto is the founder and design director at IXDS, responsible for the overall design strategy. He is a Professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam, where he teaches “Physical Interaction Design” and researches innovative, bodily-focused approaches to Human-computer interaction. Reto has previously worked as an Associate Professor with the Interaction Design Institute in Ivrea, and as a designer/researcher with Sony in Tokyo and Ideo in San Francisco. He studied Industrial Design at UdK Berlin and Mechanical Engineering at TU Berlin. Prior to his studies, Reto had an apprenticeship as a stonemason in Southern Germany.
Text — Scott Savarie — Interaction Designer at Edenspiekermann — @ScottSavarie
