PROF. HERMANN W. KLÖCKNER

DESIGNING FUTURES BY RESEARCH AND BUSINESS

Portrait of Prof. Hermann W. Klöckner

Photo: Laura Gliesche, Elke Dörfel

About

I am Hermann Wolfram Klöckner, Professor of Interaction Design at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, based in the historic Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Partner and Creative Director at the Berlin consultancy CAVORIT GmbH, where I shape DataCards, the Agentic Algorithm Warehouse, strategically as a platform. My work sits where human-AI interaction meets business: I research how people and intelligent systems make decisions together, and I consult companies on turning data and AI into decisions their teams trust. I am co-author of The Bauhaus Code (2025) and hold patents on auxetic and gradient lattice structures.

How can we embrace change to drive desirable futures?

In my work, this is what I aim for: researching, analysing, proposing, prototyping and teaching new processes and systems in order to drive change towards desirable futures.

Drawing on AI, the patterns of nature, a vivid network of ambitious people and a great deal of digital high-tech, I work as a consultant who helps organisations act on their data and as a professor who prepares designers for a world shared with intelligent systems.

How does the 'new' come into existence?

Let us appreciate it: we live in a world that is driven by radical change. It's in the very definition of life: the complex interplay of resources and challenges.

Evolution has led to a mind-blowing abundance of processes that are doing exactly that: Creating resilience through change!

Applying design thinking, intense user research and hands-on experimentation with AI, I take design innovation from research into business.

Academic Endeavours

My academic activities are based at HS ANHALT, located in the historic Bauhaus in Dessau, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, next to Berlin. I research and teach interaction design, including the fields of Complex User Experience, Data Visualization, Digital-Physical Convergence and Artificial Intelligence. Inspired by Walter Gropius' holistic approach, I research and synthesize innovative interaction to address the 21st century's wicked challenges.

Together with my colleagues, fellow researchers and international students we strive to further develop Dessau's role as a disruptive design school.

Within the New European Bauhaus I initiated the RZZ Reallabor ZEKIWA Zeitz, a real-world laboratory for urban development on the historic ZEKIWA factory grounds in Zeitz. Its core is the use of AI and augmented reality for citizen participation: residents explore development scenarios on site and vote on them, starting with the artistic façade design of a listed building under renovation. The project brings more than 7 million euros of funding, about 1.7 million of it to Anhalt University through the Just Transition Fund.

I am an external PhD candidate at TUM Technical University of Munich, Integrated Product Design, where I research joint decision-making and hybrid intelligence.

Read more about academic activities here...

Business and Realising Futures

My consulting activities are strongly associated with CAVORIT Consulting, a Berlin-based company innovating in Data Science, Digital Twins and AI. It does so by facilitating a combination of big data visualization/interaction, business psychology, software development and strategic consulting — including DataCards: The Agentic Algorithm Warehouse — a platform for collaborative, data-driven decision support.

CAVORIT hosts both research and commercial projects. Clients range from international companies like Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce to Berlin start-ups.

CAVORIT's passion is to empower user-centric innovation.

Read more about CAVORIT here

Research Profiles, Publications, Book and Patents

Profiles

Book

The Bauhaus Code (2025). Dyan Valdés, Harald Fiedler and Hermann W. Klöckner. Bauhaus principles for data, AI ethics and product teams. Kulturbuchverlag Berlin, ISBN 978-3-88961-480-3. Podcast to the book: The Bauhaus Code – AI Podcast

Selected Peer-Reviewed Papers

  1. Klöckner, H. W., McTeague, C., Liu, S., Dreyer, S. and Thoring, K. (2026). Decisive Design: How Spatial Arrangements Shape Group Decision-Making. Proceedings of the Design Society, 6, 387–396, DESIGN 2026, Dubrovnik. doi:10.1017/pds.2026.10397
  2. Liu, S., McTeague, C., Klöckner, H. W., Dreyer, S. and Thoring, K. (2026). Interactive Visualisation of Collaborative Dynamics: A VLM-Based Approach for Behavior and Affect Analysis. Proceedings of the Design Society, 6, 2413–2422, DESIGN 2026, Dubrovnik. doi:10.1017/pds.2026.10599
  3. Rudzinska, C. V., Klöckner, H. W., Mueller, R. M. and Schierding, J. L. (2026). Dialectical AI in Foresight: Advancing Futures Literacy with the Futures' Fingerprints+AI Method. Proceedings of HICSS 2026, 6020–6029. doi:10.24251/HICSS.2026.712
  4. Klöckner, H. W., Rudzinska, C. V., Mueller, R. M. and Schierding, J. L. (2025). Futures' Fingerprints: Joint Scenario Assessment via Graspable Boundary Objects in Digital Decision-Making Spaces. Proceedings of HICSS 2025, 6104–6113. Nominated for the Best Paper Award. doi:10.24251/HICSS.2025.731
  5. Kokoschko, B. R., Wiesner, M., Wilke, H., Akyol, Y., Schabacker, M., Augustin, L. and Klöckner, H. W. (2025). Collaborative and Participatory Design of Community Spaces at Local and Municipal Level: A Multi-Method Approach. Proceedings of E&PDE 2025, DS 137, 631–636. doi:10.35199/EPDE.2025.106
  6. Akyol, Y., Wiesner, M. and Klöckner, H. W. (2025). Skeuomorphism in Extended Reality: Enhancing User Interaction Through Familiar Design in AR and VR Interfaces. Insights from the Home Interspace Project. Proceedings of E&PDE 2025, DS 137, 259–264. doi:10.35199/EPDE.2025.44
  7. Klöckner, H. W. and Thoring, K. (2024). The Evolution of Design Patterns in Joint Decision-Making Spaces. Proceedings of the Design Society, 4, 393–402, DESIGN 2024, Dubrovnik. doi:10.1017/pds.2024.42
  8. Mueller, R. M., Thoring, K., Klöckner, H. W. and Larsen, K. R. (2024). Crafting Future Scenarios with the Help of AI: Potentials of a Hybrid Delphi Expert Panel. Proceedings of HICSS 2024, 6458–6467. doi:10.24251/HICSS.2024.774
  9. Klöckner, H. and Wiesner, M. (2023). Reframing Hearing Aids: Exploring the Design Space of Analogue Fashionable Hearing Aids for Users with Mild Hearing Impairments. Proceedings of the Design Society, 3, 3045–3054, ICED23, Bordeaux. doi:10.1017/pds.2023.305
  10. Thoring, K., Mueller, R. M. and Klöckner, H. W. (2023). Mind the Future Gap: Introducing the FOD Framework for Future-Oriented Design. Proceedings of HICSS 2023, 5865–5874. doi:10.24251/HICSS.2023.713
  11. Dumičić, Ž., Thoring, K., Klöckner, H. W. and Joost, G. (2022). Design Elements in Data Physicalization: A Systematic Literature Review. DRS2022, Bilbao. doi:10.21606/drs.2022.660
  12. Thoring, K., Klöckner, H. W. and Mueller, R. M. (2022). Designing the Future With the “Delphi Design Sprint”: Introducing a Novel Method for Design Science Research. Proceedings of HICSS 2022, 5798–5807. doi:10.24251/HICSS.2022.706
  13. Sostmann, K., Kühne, A. and Klöckner, H. W. (2013). Gradient Grid: A Spring Mesh with Different Zones of Flexibility. Paper on smart geometries, Südstern Produkte, Berlin. Google Scholar
  14. Klöckner, H. W. (2008). TUI: Tangibility of the Digital. Form+Zweck. Google Scholar

Patents

  • + Verformbare Gitterstruktur (deformable gradient lattice structure for rapid manufacturing), German utility model DE 20 2012 013 002 U1, 2014. Inventor: Hermann W. Klöckner.
  • + Auxetic flexible expanded-metal mesh (Formetall / Flexmetall), international patent family, priority 1999. Co-inventors: Albrecht Klöckner, Hermann W. Klöckner, Wilhelm Röttger. EP 1 156 894 B1, US 6,696,169 B1, DE 199 22 202 B4.

Curriculum Vitae / Selected Projects