Oliver Gerstheimer
C001701
Germany ／ Service Design & Digital Innovation
Oliver Gerstheimer is the founder and design director of the digital co-innovation agency chilli(mind in Kassel in the heart of Germany.
Following the founding of his company he worked intensively on a business pragmatic & methodical design process: how to create new digital services and interactive products in a meaningful and human centric way (2001-2004). This basic design research in the early phase of the digital business was awarded 2002 by the Vodafone Foundation for Research in Telecommunication (Germany). The results of this integrated “Digital Value Creation Process” are formulated in the 2004 publication “Needs versus technology – the challenge to design third-generation mobile applications” (Journal of Business Research Vol. 57, Issue 12, Elsevier)
Influenced from the long history of System Design at the Kassel University (since 1971) his pathway as a methodologist and design thinker was strongly guided by the Berkeley trained Professors Dr. Helmut Krauch, Prof. Hans Dehlinger (PHD) as well as by Hon. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tom Sommerlatte, Prof. Lucius Burckhardt and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Jonas.
On this basis Oliver and the chilli mind team have developed a unique and lean co-innovation approach facing the new challenges of digitization and digital transformation: to strive for a systemic exploration and identification of future users´ needs and to translate these ideas into valuable and sustainable digital service products and new business models.
Together with the interdisciplinary chilli-team of multi-stack-designers and creative forethinkers he works for international clients in more than 15 different industry areas e.g. Automotive & eMobility, Health Care & Pharma, Media & Entertainment, Education, FinTech, Retail, Telecommunication, Transportation and Industrial Automation 5.0.
The expertise of chilli mind is to provocate market driven innovation and to design extensive and sustainable UIUX-design-strategies for market leaders worldwide. Experienced and proven by over 850 projects Oliver and his chilli-mind-team feel “at home” in all kinds of digital interface context e.g. voice- & user interfaces, human machine interfaces, multimodal gesture design, VR/AR and AI data interactions and real-time-visualizations.
With over 20 years of design practice Oliver Gerstheimer has been an enthusiastic and well-known evangelist for “human-centered design (HCD)”. He gives regularly talks and publicizes papers on international platforms for design and digital transformation. Since 2002 he has taught “on site” at German and Swiss Universities of Design for a total of 15 semesters. Together with Siemens Oliver Gerstheimer created in 2018/19 the world´s first online “HMI-Design Masterclass” – available for free.
Since 2015 Oliver has been a member of the jury of the international iF Design Award in the category Service Design and User Experience.
Furthermore he was elected as “National Expert 2016” of the German Chapter of the User Experience & Usability Professionals Association (German UPA).
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1971 Born in Germany, Kempten / Allgäu – near the beautiful Alps
2001 Established chilli mind GmbH, Kassel Germany
University Lecturer
2002 - 2009: Course-director & head of postgraduate master study “Mobile Application Design”, z_hdk – Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland
2003 - 2007: Lecturer & design lead in the interdisciplinary research Project “mik21 – Digital Technology Migration” at the Faculty of Product Design, University Kassel
2010-2011: Lecturer for “Design Management & Advanced Design Thinking”, HAWK – University of Supplied Science and Arts Hildesheim, Germany
2015-2016: Lecturer for “Interactive Systems”, University of Supplied Science Fulda, Germany
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Education
2001 Master degree: systems design – faculty of product design; University Kassel
2000 Additional study: new media – faculty visual communication; Kassel Art Academy
2001 Additional multidisciplinary degree: sustainable technology & innovation management; University Kassel
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The chilli-mind-team has been awarded with more than 30 design and innovation prizes, including iF Gold Design Awards, iF Design Awards, RedDot Design Award, German Design Awards, UX Design Award Nominations, Innovation Design Award, Cross-Media Awards, Art Directors Club Award, SAP Innovation Award, German Digital Award and more.
Portfolio
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Ottobock – Fitness for Amputee App
The Fitness for Amputees app includes a range of easy-to-follow exercises specifically designed by experienced physiotherapists for people with a unilateral leg amputation. The fitting of a prosthesis needs up to 6 months of balanced training in three areas: Strength & endurance, coordination & balance, as well as stretching & relaxation.
The ottobock app was co-created with users & therapists into a multi-cultural design. The illustrations correspond with a "universal design" approach and respect worldwide cultural sensitivities regarding the depiction of bodies. Great value was placed on multi-modal user interactions regarding sitting & standing training contexts.
The App is now available in 11 different languages.
Red Dot Design Award
Nominated for German Design Award, UX Design Award -
Siemens – HMI DeMasterclasssign
This isn’t just a “video tutorial” – it’s a bold move to change the world of Human Machine Interfaces in order to improve the daily work in factories around the globe. At its core, the HMI Design Masterclass provides 7x10 minutes of practical design tips and guidelines from professional designers for automation engineers. On top, there are recaps, assignments, and templates to get started. Considering the tiny target group, we only expected to reach around 1,000 people. When the first unit launched on 20 September 2018, over 4,000 participants had already registered, waiting eagerly to learn more about professional HMI Design.
iF Design Award -
Werk39 – Co-Innovation Architecture
This is not about a fancy animated logo – it’s about the people who live in a space. Werk_39 is the new co-innovation lab of the medical technology company Aesculap AG.
It represents a holistic approach to brand architecture that goes far beyond business cards and branded biros. Werk_39 reflects the context of the historic factory architecture and combines tradition with modernity to generate an authentic and remarkable brand. To initiate a creative working culture with a start-up-like infrastructure, the designers developed a collaborative approach that involved the interior designers as well as those who work at Werk_39.
iF Gold Award -
Concept – Automotive User Experience
What is positive User Experience and how does it look like in eMobility Systems? We create user-driven Automotive Interfaces and strategic Service- and Interaction Systems for dynamic and Wow-Making Spheres.
Focus is the translating of tomorrows users´ needs into highly tangible, personal and interactive connectivity in the context of mobility – a new sphere for orchestrating emotions, passion, wellness, knowledge and acoustic dimensions. Optimizing this smart atmosphere in dynamic ecosystems means pathfinding human empathies and inventing totally new promises of sensual spaces and service interrelations. Customize your mobile living room – activate personal theme styles and choose which mood and emotainment is most desirable to your contextual perception. -
SMA – ennexOS
The cross-sector platform ennexOS supports planning, setup and operation of energy systems with complex asset hierarchies. As the world's first software orchestration for commercial and private energy consumers, it optimizes energy management of photovoltaics, battery storage, heat pumps, boilers and combined heat and power plants. Through the navigation, the platform offers clear and fast user-flows through all system hierarchies such as portfolio, plant groups, plants, units and devices. Efficient analysis dashboards and UX-monitoring functions as well as customized modules make ennexOS the leading energy management system of the future.
eAward and ees Award -
TomTom – Curfer
A well-rounded service experience focusing on “your car’s inherent driving data” has been fully designed and modulated into a high-quality look and feel: from product proposition, app naming and real-time GUI visualization to the comprehensive packaging concept, web shop, and entire PR and roll-out communication. The core of the user experience is represented by a customer-based dialogue principle commencing at packaging and an analogue quick-start guide with seamless transition to the digital set-up wizard in the app. The roll-out concept was also synchronized across all media, including the app store, web site, PR and online ads.
iF Design Award -
Kabel Deutschland – Danke. Einfach Starten.
Thank you: Just start — set-up in 5 steps ... does what it promises. Dialogue, unification of formats and harmonization of design were the “three heroes” in this corporate packaging project – for up to 2 million shipped units per year. The guided dialogue with the customer DOES NOT stop at the outer packaging but continues consistently and unambiguously during setup and installation. An integrated "User Experience & Brand Usability" was realized across all shipped materials, from unpacking over readability up to the different assembly instructions of all Kabel Deutschland Delivery Products for Internet & TV.
iF Design Award -
B. Braun – Diabetes Management System
With the user in mind first the complete system of B. Braun Omnitest was redesigned from the ground up simplifying the interface for all user groups. Focus was an optimized service usability across all media improving user interfaces, readability, understandability as well as security aspects regarding communication and documentation. Considered were all "points of contact" for the affected, relatives and physicians: product packaging, user interface of the blood glucose meter (hardware), online diary & mobile application (software), a multi-lingual instruction manual as well as a secure monitoring-access for physicians.
Good Design® Award
