A look into our future: Digital Product Design and Development

Oliver jung fotografie hfg spacecamp 2018 6044 kl

Smart Home, fitness trackers, self-propelled cars – there are more and more networked, digital and intel­li­gent products. We, in the Digital Product Design and Deve­lo­p­ment degree program, network products via the Internet and make sure that they commu­ni­cate with each other. This includes robo­tics, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, and user-expe­ri­ence – things that will comple­tely trans­form tomor­row’s world. What is possible with them? We expe­ri­ment with this and design things that are both meaningful and useful.

→ Curr­ently no appli­ca­tions are possible!


Smart Home, Fitness­tra­cker, selbst­fah­rende Autos – es gibt immer mehr vernetzte, digi­tale und intel­li­gente Produkte. Wir im Studi­en­gang Digital Product Design and Deve­lo­p­ment vernetzen Produkte über das Internet und sorgen dafür, dass sie mitein­ander kommu­ni­zieren. Dazu gehören Robotik, künst­liche Intel­li­genz, User Expe­ri­ence – Dinge, die die Welt von morgen völlig umkrem­peln. Was damit alles möglich ist? Das probieren wir aus und entwerfen Dinge, die sowohl sinn­voll als auch nütz­lich sind.

What does an Digital Product Design and Deve­lo­p­ment program look like?

Students spend most of their time in the Proto­ty­ping Lab, the Media Lab and in the work­shops. This is where they really let off steam and give free rein to their ideas. For example, with 3D prin­ters, sensors, actua­tors and micro­con­trol­lers like Arduino and Raspberry Pi or with laser cutters. They think about what the future will look like and put their ideas into prac­tice in terms of tech­no­logy and design. This results in solu­tions with virtual reality glasses, bone sound head­phones and speech assistants. Or they try out comple­tely new tech­no­lo­gies that are not yet available on the market.

Digi­ta­liza­tion! But that’s not all!

A good idea with digital tech­no­lo­gies is not enough to create a func­tio­ning Digital Product Design and Deve­lo­p­ment product. The human being has to be taken into conside­ra­tion and is the focus of our work. Ther­e­fore, we deal with crea­tive and rese­arch methods to develop inno­va­tions that fit the target group. For example, what does a navi­ga­tion system for the blind look like and what does a digital compa­nion for primary school children look like?

Our strength in the Digital Product Design and Deve­lo­p­ment course

Working proto­types and first test models with which we test or simu­late the latest tech­no­lo­gies. The students program and manu­fac­ture objects with sensors. For example, they build an auto­no­mously playing table football.

Important Docu­ments

Oliver jung fotografie E7 C9078

These are our focal points

In the DP course, as in all courses of study at the HfG, there is a solid foun­da­tion course of study so that your basics are based on skills and abili­ties. From the first semester onwards, you will work in small teams on prac­tice-oriented projects and imple­ment them. These four areas of specia­liza­tion play a major role again and again:

  1. Spacial Tech­no­lo­gies

    Unlike mobile media, these are the fixed tech­no­lo­gies. These include smart home concepts, fine dust detec­tors or the oven that auto­ma­ti­cally goes out as soon as the pizza cheese reaches the perfect state of doneness.

  2. Portable Media

    There are a lot of things meant by this term. It can be anything from snow pants that report avalan­ches to a self-deli­ve­ring parcel drone. It’s about digital tech­no­lo­gies and services that commu­ni­cate with each other and are not atta­ched to a fixed loca­tion by sending and recei­ving data.

  3. Physical Compu­ting

    This is about the hard­ware. How do you build a voice assistant? What sensors does a ship need so that it can maneuver auto­no­mously between icebergs? Or quite simply, how do you get an LED to blink?

  4. User-centered design

    It’s no use desig­ning a cool thing if no one can use it, or the person who uses it can’t handle it. That’s why it’s important to under­stand who you’re desig­ning for and the situa­tion you are desig­ning for. Crea­tive and rese­arch methods help with that.

Oliver jung fotografie E7 C9708

These are our projects

You feel like ente­ring into digital worlds? Then come and see for yourself. The semester exhi­bi­tion, the Design Campus or one of our info days offer the best oppor­tu­nity to get a direct insight into our program.

Lear­ning by heart, cramming with books and anony­mous lectures in over­c­rowded lecture halls, that’s some­thing you won’t find at our univer­sity. Espe­ci­ally not with us in DP.

Portfolio IoT

Where can you work with an DP Bachelor degree?

The IT and deve­lo­p­ment scene is booming and the industry is looking for a lot of skilled workers. In addi­tion to engi­neers, the industry is also looking for people with design skills who know what is tech­ni­cally possible and can design inno­va­tive products. And these are exactly the people we train at the HfG. Our profes­sions are called ​„UX-Desi­gner“, ​„Crea­tive Deve­loper“, ​„Crea­tive Coder“ or ​„Front-end Deve­loper“. We work at the inter­face between design, tech­no­logy, engi­nee­ring and computer science. Our employers are engi­nee­ring and design offices, deve­lo­p­ment depart­ments and future labo­ra­to­ries in industry as well as compa­nies in the media and infor­ma­tion industry.

„As a front-end deve­loper for augmented reality (AR), I work toge­ther with the team to develop new inter­ac­tion concepts. In doing so, I apply methods from design thin­king and shape impli­men­ta­tion processes.“
Jan Hassel
Working student IBM Deutschland Research & Development
„I work at BEG on busi­ness field and market analysis for inno­va­tions in DP busi­ness models.“
Lisa Jäger
Working student Bosch Engineering GmbH (BEG)
„As a working student at ETAS GmbH of the Bosch Group, I am working in an inno­va­tive inter­na­tional deve­lo­p­ment team. My topic is user rese­arch of ECU soft­ware in the auto­mo­tive field.“
Nathalie Schrahe
Working student ETAS GmbH
„I look after of the internal and external appearance of our product. As an DP student, I combine my design and tech­nical under­stan­ding and use it to create product presentations.“
Josh Cornau
Working student Bosch Engineering Abteilung DP / Cluster Embedded Linux

→ Curr­ently no appli­ca­tions are possible!

You cannot curr­ently apply for the Digital Product Design and Deve­lo­p­ment degree programme. You can find our other degree programmes here:

Our degree programs

Ask Us

Any ques­tions? Then contact our degree program coor­di­nator for Digital Product Design and Deve­lo­p­ment at the HfG Schwä­bisch Gmünd:

Pauline Koch

Pauline Koch

Studiengangskoordination Digital Product Design and Development

Send email

07171 602609