Michaela Honauer

Equal Opportunity Coordinator Faculty of Design

Member of the Faculty Council for Design

Member of the Expert Committee for Knowledge and Technology Transfer at Nuremberg Tech (SVA WTT)

Vice Chair of the Examination Board of the Master’s Program in Design for Digital Futures 

Design Research Society (DRS)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und -forschung (DGTF)

The Systemic Design Association (SDA)

Association of Computing Machinery (ACM)

Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI)

Design Research & Methodology, Social Science Methods for Designers, Participatory Design, Posthuman/ More-than-Human-centered Design, Artistic-inspired Design, Design Ethnography, Design Ethics, Systemic Thinking

DESIGN AS A RELATIONAL PRACTICE

This research area positions design as a practical and theoretical exploration of relationships between people, technologies, and (eco)systems. It begins with questions that cannot be resolved within individual disciplines but are addressed through the integration of design, human-computer interaction (HCI), social research, ethics, and, to some extent, artistic practice.

The approach is divided into three interconnected areas:

1. the shaping of human-technology relationships and interactions in the context of new and emerging technologies, particularly AI,

2. the expansion of design processes to include posthumanist (more-than-human), post-phenomenological, and ecological perspectives,

3. the development of inclusive and experience-based design formats and methods that make marginalized perspectives visible and effective.

A defining feature is a qualitative approach that combines participatory, ethnographic, speculative, and artistic-performative methods with social science research methodologies, and understands design not merely as problem-solving but as a means of generating, mediating, and negotiating knowledge. The research area focuses on approaches that can be transferred to diverse contexts of practice, the public, and design.

Advice on thesis topics is available upon request

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5051-4913