The Red Dot ranking is based on design projects created by the
schools' students over the past five years. This year's winning UID
student projects range from coral reef restoration drones to
storytelling tools for parent-child interactions.
"It's a testament to the valuable work that our students are
doing" says Thomas Degn, Programme Director for the Master's
Programme in Advanced Product Design. "It shows us that our
students are able to present their projects in a way that people
outside the industrial design community can really appreciate them.
The ranking is a kind of quality stamp on the things that go on
here. Maybe anybody can get top spot once but to do it five years
in a row and eight times in ten years, that has never been done
before"
A keyboard for the futuristic screenless workplace
One UID student project received special honours at the Red Dot
Awards. The next-generation keyboard Logi ULTRA was presented with
the Red Dot: Best of the Best award. The concept is a keyboard that
bridges the gap to the future screenless workplace by utilizing
technologies such as virtual- and augmented realities (VR and
AR).
Students Shuai Li and Tillmann Schrempf created the product with
the aim of improving remote working efficiency, especially in the
home office or in shared offices. Shuai Li, currently in his final
year of the Master's Programme in Advanced Product Design, believes
that the office technology we surround ourselves with will change
significantly in the next decade.
"Logi ULTRA can adapt to different working situations, which
will be key in the future" says Shuai Li. "We've used emerging
technologies such as ultrahaptics, which enables sensory feedback
in mid-air, and a capacitive touchscreen that responds to your
slightest touch. The keyboard changes layouts according to the
user's ergonomics and preferences and over time it also adapts to
the user's way of working through machine learning technology. By
pushing the fingerprint login button, users can wake up any Logi
ULTRA keyboard with their familiar layout in any shared office in
the world. We are really proud of winning the notable Red Dot: Best
of the Best award for this particular product."
Tillmann Schrempf believes that the highly international student
body at UID is part of the secret recipe behind the visionary
design concepts produced each year by students from all corners of
the world.
"For us, being a German and a Chinese designer working in the
very north of Sweden, we constantly face intercultural
communication challenges. But this gives us a unique perspective on
the changing, globalizing workplace. We believe that the mixed
cultural heritage of students at UID provides us with a wider
perspective to explore the design world and tackle the problems we
want and need to solve", says Tillmann Schrempf.
Read more about
Umeå Institute of Design
For more information, please contact:
Jens Persson, Communications Officer, Umeå Institute of Design,
Umeå University
Phone: +4690 786 50 63
E-post: jens.persson@umu.se
