BASE

Project at a glance

• Looks at how technology can improve entire regions.
• Utilizes user-centred and interdisciplinary approaches to generate tangible prototypes that combine user needs and technological possibilities.
• The partnering universities are part of the Design Factory Global Network.

Public summary

The BASE program aims to create desirable solutions for smart technologies and smart environments. The users’ needs and possibilities of the technologies are built to fit real-life situations and provide sustainable benefits.

The program projects exploit the results from prior iterations, both from the technological and user understanding point of view. Partners of the program are Aalto Design Factory, Hochschule Mannheim, and HAMK University of Applied Sciences. All partners are part of the Design Factory Global network, share their user-centred innovation approaches, incorporate interdisciplinary team collaboration, and provide rich “making” facilities to support the prototyping process for solutions.

The innovation methods used in the course encourage the autonomous decision-making of the students and enhance the collaboration between different stakeholders when creating new proof-of-concept models. Students use design methods to empathize with real users and take these findings as inspiration to come up with meaningful and desirable product ideas based on the provided ATTRACT technologies and their regional context. The design decisions of their product concepts are rationalized by their findings on the context and environment and backed by user testing through several iterative cycles.

The combined result of the course is a mapping between smart technologies and smart, sustainable environments. It exemplifies by the provided solutions, how smart technologies as provided in ATTRACT can be used to improve the lives of people without harming our planet.