As a designer I make things visible, make things make sense and make things. I am a UX/UI designer at Digital Service 4Germany, the digital service unit of the German federal administration. Our goal: creating services that work better for everyone. Interested in getting into UX design or the public sector? I'd love to help! Let's meet for a remote coffee, tea or lunch → Guidance. In my spare time I am completing my master in urban futures at FH Potsdam. Previously I worked with the German ministry of justice as part of the Tech4Germany fellowship, the public sector team at PwC and the service design studio Fuxblau.
I've come to realize that I want to use my time, energy and skills to ideally design for all people, regardless of their purchase intentions, passport, background or abilities. Too often, our resources are underused by only serving a fraction of our society and neglecting our most critical necessities. I am convinced that by adopting the mindset, approach, and tools of today's designers, governments will be able to better meet the needs, wishes and expectations of its people. Let’s build the open government, together!
At the end of my graphic design apprenticeship at Lette-Verein I discovered service design and realized I want to do more than just designing logos and posters. Since then I've shifted to a more holistic approach: I studied interface design at FH Potsdam, did the basic track at D-School, worked at the service design studio Fuxblau for 4 years, work in the public sector team at PwC, joined the Tech4Germany fellowship and started the urban futures master at FH Potsdam. For more information go to → experience.
I eat lots of sweets but somehow hardly gain weight. I'm seriously afraid of the end of the universe. Always up for sports and board games. The best purchase for my flat was a slow closing toilet seat. I still enjoy watching Spongebob and Dragon Ball. I love chocolate but not chocolate ice cream. Humanist technologist and optimist. I enjoy observing how people observe other people. I like to take care of my fingernails. Aperol Spritz was my favorite summer drink before it became cool.
Germanys ministry of justice worked together with Tech4Germany to improve its website for federal laws »Gesetze-im-Internet.de« with more than 4 million monthly visitors. Within the 12-week fellowship we created a basic MVP, an API and a clickdummy. The MVP shows it's possible to create something functioning within a short period of time. The API creates awareness and emphasizes its importance for more open data within the ministry and to the public. The clickdummy helped us to test our assumptions and functions as a clickable vision for the website.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Niko Felger, Greta Fest, Conrad Schlenkhoff, Dr. Beatrix Lindner, Sabine Schlüter, Alexander Schiff and Kai Rülke.
As part of an internal project at Fuxblau, Birga, Maya and I set out to help young people prepare for their retirement during a 5-day design sprint. We were not surprised by our guerilla research. Young people either just ignored the topic all together or just didn't feel ready to start saving yet. Paper prototypes helped us open a dialogue rather than just testing its features and usability. By creating the customer journey, business model canvas and stakeholder map we identified gaps and opportunities in our concept.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Maya McBeath and Birga Schlottmann.
The European Spring Movement (DiEM25) is a pan-European political movement launched in 2015 by former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat. I offered my expertise to local organizers and ended up working with their policy coordinator David Adler. We replaced the cryptic policy titles with descriptive and concise headlines. We then classified the 100 policies into 4 overall goals and 12 subgoals to offer various points of entry and make them less overwhelming.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez and David Adler.
Arriva asked us to develop services that would react to changes on the customer side as well as disruptive competition within his key market. Our team traveled through seven European countries, talked to more than 40 users and industry experts to identify relevant trends. Based on our research we developed rough concepts for transportation services and tested them with people on the street. Together with the client team, we prepared the service implementation by creating service blueprints and created a plan for how to prototype the services in various countries.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Manuel Großmann, Kira Krämer, Maya McBeath, Birga Schlottmann and Olga Scupin.
The challenge of this small exercise was to translate a book into its digital counterpart in two screen formats: 1024×768 and 240×320. Ioannis Sarakasidis and I aimed to emphasize Hopper's paintings with a clear layout and light typography. We chose to incorporate the characteristic red for headings and active states. The letter H functions as the menu button. We used Sketch to create the screens and experimented with the prototyping tool Pixate. The course was led by Boris Müller at FH Potsdam.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez and Ioannis Sarakasidis.
The course at FH Potsdam, supervised by Frank Rausch and Timm Kekeritz, was roughly structured like a Google Design Sprint. Rather than introducing new fancy features, we concentrated on fixing the biggest pain points. Our main focus was on how to better present individual podcast episodes as well as podcast series within the explore section. Our second main focus was the redesign of the actual podcast player.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Sebastian Anders and Yaron Zimmermann.
We redesigned the desktop interface of Volksverschlüsselung. An initiative from the Frauenhofer Institute to make it easier to send and receive encrypted emails.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Marizon Bilano and Bodo Pahlke.
We interviewed various experts from the fields of urban water management, rainwater management, disaster control, IT security and foresight. It became clear that digitalization and the climate crisis pose new challenges for the water supply and disposal. We developed 8 impulses, which help to build crisis-resilient water infrastructures in new housing districts.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Jan Korte, Elise Rebien and Jana Schelte.
In my bachelor thesis, I envision a future in which cities can physically, legally and digitally adapt to the changing needs of its inhabitants. As people get more independent they can create communities based on their individual priorities. In my work I explore the most prominent opportunities and challenges this vision involves along such as: the business model, autonomy, formation of communities, spatial privilege, flora & fauna, serendipity, convenience vs. privacy and the access to services and goods.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
A neighbourhood where people know each other across circles of friends, exchange knowledge and support each other has many advantages: It is more lively, creative and robust than neighbourhoods where the neighbourhood does not know each other or where there are isolated groups. This is exactly where the Kiezhochschule comes in. A variety of events, interventions and community spaces bring people together, they learn from each other and make new acquaintances.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Claas Fritzsche, Max Linnenschmidt, Kilian Parker, Jana Schelte, Sharmila Sharma and Thora Weidling.
Is your city lacking growth, future perspectives, and a vivid cultural scene? Follow our 7 steps to transform your city into a flourishing and dynamic metropolis. We identified Berlin's secret sauce and created a fictional transformation agency. Berlinize is the result of the university course »Mapping Cities – Making Cities« by Prof. Dr. Marian Dörk at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Marie Beckmann, Theodor Hillmann and Max Linnenschmidt.
Every year the Bertelsmann Foundation publishes the Social Justice Index. We brought the data back to the public to disrupt people from their daily routine and created more than a dozen of dataobjects around Berlin, combining each dataset with its appropriate medium and location.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Merle Ibach, Mario Klemm, Thomas Miebach and Philipp Strixner.
An internet-connected clock that shows you when your next train, bus or tram is coming. Magnetic ceramic spheres are linked to specific public transportation routes. Once a sphere is positioned on the clock face, it will move to the next available departure position.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez and Emanuele Libralato.
Created just for fun. Why not?
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
A modular and versatile box with the perfect size for vinyls and office folders. Thanks to its 45° miters on top and bottom they can be stacked and rotated to all four sides, creating shelves and room dividers. Made at FH Potsdam.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
At the physical interaction course supervised by Reto Wettach we dismantled a keyboard and combined the circuit board with various other sensors and actuators to create new electronic objects. During this 1-week exercise I connected hats with two tilt sensors triggering the keyboard buttons which allow the players to control the direction of their line in the game »Achtung, die Kurve!«.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Made at FH Potsdam. Make sure to watch the interview with Oliver Kahn in German.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Successful application homework for the integrated design study program at KISD. The homework topic was Try. The game Mago consists of 27 wooden cubes with a magnet of a different polarity on each side.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Physicalization of the daily emitted carbon dioxide per capita from 1896 to 2016. The more carbon dioxide is emitted, the bigger and warmer the stones become — an analogy to global warming. The empty shapes represent the predicted emissions. Made during a 1-hour workshop at the FH Potsdam with Katja Budinger. Note: not accurate data.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez and Katja Budinger.
Berlin 2037 — a pill to eliminate all sexual desire of the human mind has become increasingly popular. In this speculative documentary the sexual therapist Dra. Engel explains the reasons for the intake and the effects on four of her patients.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Lia von Blarer, Stephan Brändle, Sabrina Frank, Frida Grubba, Carolin Maiwald, José Rojas, Michael Schröder and Jan Schulz.
An outlook focusing on the technological and evolutionary possibilities of the next 100 years. Potential future events, presented as fragments in pictures and texts stimulate the imagination regarding the future of humanity. This photo shows a victim of an intergalactic pandemic. Made with tonic water, gelatine, and ultraviolet lights. Collaboration with Mario Hamborg, Moira Berit Joachim, Dominik Manikowski, Nina Tschirner and Oriana Striebeck at FH Potsdam.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Mario Hamborg, Moira Berit Joachim, Dominik Manikowski and Nina Tschirner.
Projection mapping the route and weather onto a laser cut mountain. Collaboration with Mario Klemm, Thomas Miebach, Philipp Strixner at FH Potsdam.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez, Mario Klemm, Thomas Miebach and Philipp Strixner.
Bigger picture business idea: a platform to order food on demand from ladies in Nicaragua who would love to share their creations but are too old to sell the food on the market.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Santa Rosa del Peñón, Nicaragua.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Technical support regarding the golden embossing from Daniel Bauer.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez and Daniel Bauer.
Carbon Works is a factory in the heart of Berlin producing high-quality carbon pieces for cars, technical equipment, skis, snowboards as well as packaging and furniture design. During the second year of my graphic design studies, we had the task to design a company’s identity and I had the opportunity to do a rebrand for them.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Business card for the DJ duo Bunga & Bunga. Made with marbled and laser cut paper and silver foil.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
My mother wrote about our neighbor Peter, who passed away in 2013 after struggling with Alzheimer's for several years. I illustrated his story in this booklet during a course at FH Potsdam supervised by Dipl. Graf. Hans-Jürgen Willuhn.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez and his mother Lydia.
Made for fun during my graphic design apprenticeship at Lette-Verein.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Antonio Festa is a Berlin-based architect. The laser marked lines on the back represent his favorite piece of architecture: the National Parliament House in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
How can we encapsulate the common, slightly contradictory desire of creative people and people in general: to express their individuality while being part of the whole? We developed a generative vortex representing the students' academic process in time and space. Students from all over the world come together, disoriented at the beginning, together they start to explore and collaborate, they focus on their interests, improve their skills to finally graduate as specialists in their chosen fields.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez and Flora Karger.
Inspired by a song from my Mexican cousin and supervised by Prof. Hans-Jörg Kotulla at FH Potsdam.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
The Berliner Box is a modular and versatile box with the perfect size for vinyls and office folders. Thanks to its 45° mitres on top and bottom they can be stacked and rotated to all four sides, creating shelves and room dividers. Made at FH Potsdam.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Bernd Flach is a Berlin-based dance teacher. Made during my graphic design apprenticeship at Lette-Verein.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
The ODB dongle processes the data of the car to enhance the drivers' experience. Made during the codemotion hackathon.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Fuxblau is a Berlin based service design studio.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Made for a typography competition.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez and Alexander Jesipow, Flora Karger, Gülcan Uluyurt and Tina Wehder.
At the physical interaction course supervised by Reto Wettach we dismantled a keyboard and combined the circuit board with various other sensors and actuators to create new electronic objects. After the 1-week exercise we had a party to exhibit our creations. I made the poster for the party using keyboard leftovers and a photocopier.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Made using dough.
Made by José Ernesto Rodríguez.
Sometimes you have the opportunity to observe a person’s progress over years and be genuinely impressed by what they’ve become. In 2011, I met @jerdesign at @GSJAM after finishing his A-levels. Today, he’s an experienced designer with a strong portfolio — www.jer.design
Head of service design at Government Digital Service
Our collaboration as a team of four was, the more I think about it, really good. Working together, we could solve any problem!
Product fellow and team member during the Tech4Germany fellowship in 2020
Tito took his role as a user advocate quite naturally and thus let the team develop new services from more diverse perspectives. He had an uncompromising focus on users. Tito's visualizations also helped us to get a better overview and structure our thoughts.
It was a lot of fun working with him. I'm sure our paths will cross again!
Public Management Consultant at PwC — colleague in ’20
Thank you for the last year. I have learned so much from you. In terms of craftsmanship as well as perspective. Even if it sounds super cheesy (but during Christmas you are allowed to do that) you have enriched my career tremendously. Apart from that, you are a wonderful person who really inspires others. Thank you for always bringing everyone together.
Fellow Urban Futures Master student at FH Potsdam with a background in cultural studies
Tito is at the origin of many processes, ideas, workflows that Fuxblau uses nowadays. Therefore he is also a mindful person who takes responsibility for his ideas. As we have similar profile focussed on prototyping, I have acknowledged the quality of his work, but also his curiosity, that leads him to always try new tools and visual effects. Finally, Tito is a very kind and committed person. He welcomed me with open arms, allowing us to have very constructive and critical dialogs. He was actively crafting a benevolent atmosphere in Fuxblau, while setting himself higher standards project after project.
Interaction designer at Fuxblau — colleague in ’18
Tito is my most beautiful gift to myself: a tall young man, a mirror image of his father, cheeky and charming. […] At times he brings me to the point of despair when he tries to get me enthusiastic about his newest ideas demanding long discussions. But I feel instantly reconciled once he asks me for advice or just gives me a hug. A lovable tormentor!
Tito is incredibly curious and always seems to know about every latest design trend and new tool. Thus, I have constantly learned new things from him and he has always brought a breath of fresh air into our team. During the time I worked with Tito, he's had an incredible rapid development. By now, Tito is a top interface designer with a very good feeling for UX and also for visual design. Working with him has always been a pleasure — both professionally and personally.
Founder and creative lead at Fuxblau — colleague from ’14 – ’18
Tito is an extremely curious and open-minded person. He is eager to learn new tools and methods and highly motivated to acquires new skills. Although Tito works as a user experience and service designer in our company, we also highly value his skills as a maker and tinkerer.
Founder and business strategist at Fuxblau — colleague from ’14 – ’18
Tito is, from all of my friends, the one who’s most passionate about his work. It’s usually hard to talk without him interrupting because he has a new idea. He will open his eyes until they’re about to pop out and then shout into the conversation “Guys, guys … I have an Idea! Imagine …” […] But the thing that amazes me the most, is that all of his projects always have the goal of making people happy. Whether it is by trying to make their lives a little less complicated or just by paying attention to details that others underestimate.
Visual storyteller, fellow student at FH Potsdam — flatmate since ’14
I worked together with Tito on the Urban Dataobjects project at FH Potsdam. He proved to be a great team lead by facilitating the process, planning ahead and sharing tasks among our team. He has a great team spirit and always looked after each and everyone of us. I am deaf and rely on sign language interpreters. I noticed again and again how much he cared to involve me in our project. I still can feel his positive energy just thinking of him.
UX designer, fellow student at FH Potsdam and co-creator of Urban Dataobjects
»DigitalService4Germany develops digital solutions with the German state. The people’s needs are at the core of what we do. Our goal: services that work better for everyone. Federal services should be as easily usable and accessible for everyone as other digital products that we use regularly in our jobs and everyday lives. This is why our product development is centered around users and their needs. We bring teams of developers, designers and product managers into the federal administration. Focusing on users' needs and involving federal civil servants, the teams build digital solutions that work better for everyone. Our products are user-centered, modern and trust-enhancing.«
»Tech4Germany is the technology task force for the federal government under the patronage of the head of the Federal Chancellery. We bring together the country's best digital talents and creative minds in a 12-week program with government agencies and ministries to work on Germany's biggest digital challenges.« Germanys ministry of justice worked together with Tech4Germany to improve its website for federal laws »Gesetze-im-Internet.de« with more than 4 million monthly visitors. Within the 12-week fellowship we created a basic MVP, an API and a clickdummy. The MVP shows it's possible to create something functioning within a short period of time. The API creates awareness and emphasizes its importance for more open data within the ministry and to the public. The clickdummy helped us to test our assumptions and functions as a clickable vision for the website. Case study in German.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global network of legally independent and autonomous firms in the fields of auditing, tax consulting and management consulting. PwC has been working with local and municipal governments, public businesses, universities and non-Profit companies for decades. I joined the public sector team at PwC Berlin in October as a working student. As the only designer I helped my ~30 colleagues to build prototypes, plan workshops, create visuals for presentations and develop proposals to improve the collaboration within our team. Together with some colleagues we participated in the #WirVsVirusHack hackathon to combat Covid-19 and developed the Corofix chatbot. By answering the most frequents questions the chatbot relieves the overloaded hotlines. The Corofix chatbox can be easily personalized and extended by local governments to give its users more accurate answers.
The four-semester master connects students from diverse academic backgrounds such as architecture, political science, cultural studies, public policy, geography, design, ethnology and many more. We acquire the necessary interdisciplinary skills and knowledge that enable us to work independently, scientifically and creatively to critically reflect on scientific findings and to act responsibly in the context of urban transformation processes. Our studies and projects focus on the following dimensions:
The service design studio Fuxblau was founded 2013 by Olga Scupin and Manuel Grossmann and I joined them in spring 2014 as their first employee. We helped our clients to better understand what their customers really want and how their overall offer can become more customer-centric. Our clients were a mix of Berlin startups, SME’s and recently also bigger companies like Arriva, Bosch and Sennheiser. Our common project process: establish a common understanding within the team, sharpen the concept and create a first prototype based on qualitative user research. It was very important to us to leave our clients with tangible and actionable outcomes they could keep working with like prototypes, action plans and service blueprints. During an average week I would support a colleague during a workshop or sprint, help my colleagues with all kinds of tech and design questions as well as update design templates and our internal wiki.
At FH Potsdam I learned how to translate the design principles to digital interfaces and I explored its peculiarities. The studies are interdisciplinary — courses are open to interface, product and communication designers. Therefore, I also participated in many non-digital courses such as wood workshop, product design, calligraphy and ceramics. Throughout my studies I explored alternatives and additions to screen based interfaces. Be it a clock that tells you when your next bus is coming, physical objects visualizing data or a speculative short film about a future without sexual desire.
Even though I was familiar with the approach and many methods from my work at Fuxblau, the basic track at the HPI School of Design Thinking gave me more confidence to apply it. Having the freedom to experiment with new methods and processes with a group of like-minded people with diverse backgrounds made a huge difference. During the 3-week project we developed Culture Coach, a service which connects you with a fellow immigrant or expert to help you navigate the new environment. Read more about the concept and process. During the 8-week project we helped the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies to create a sustainable strategy to organize their yearly symposium. The outcome: clearly defined processes and responsibilities between BCRT staff and PhD students. A set of organizational tools give the students guidance but enough independence to grow while organizing the symposium. Our final concept pitch and rough documentation.
Coming from an artistic family it was pretty obvious I would become a creative professional. Instead of attending high school I completed a graphic design apprenticeship at Lette–Verein in Berlin. It was a rather technical apprenticeship focused on classic design techniques and print. Our classes ranged from analog photography, design sketching, design history, illustration, typography, poster design and screen printing. At the end of my apprenticeship I discovered service design at Global Service Jam and realized I wanted to do more than just designing logos and posters. I concluded with a six-month graphic design internship at Arts University Bournemouth.
Basically a family book.
Apparently this has been done before but they ran into copyright problems and had to shut down.
Although those ugly signs people create in Word or PowerPoint are also kind of beautiful.
We need to do a better job by exposing how policies will affect people in different ways. Who benefits the most and who looses the most?
Could also work as an interactive video.
So instead of going to the gym you work out by helping your fellow humans.
Imagine you could not only shazam a song but also the playlist.
Note: this should not exist.
Of course only using scraps.
Replacing the four legs with adjustable and extendable legs, similar to tripod legs. Now you can take this chair wherever you go and always sit evenly.
Imagine walking through the city and being able to listen and see the stories people have shared on the internet. Basically a story aggregator with a map. And now imagine how people in 10 or 100 years will able to re-live and re-experience our lives. History will be written and documented by everyone.
Every day we are confronted with new numbers about how we are destroying our planet. But where should we start? By visualizing the CO₂ emissions we can better understand where to start.
I am very bad at remembering card game rules. Imagine a visual summary of the rules of a card game on a single card so all the cards fit in the same deck. Ideally 2 copies of each rule card.
All the materials you need to prototype a new game such as dice, cards, tokens, chips etc.
What if the sender could classify a message as non-urgent so the recipient does not get a notification. The recipient then gets a reminder once a day for all the non-urgent messages.
Remember the last time you couldn't decide where to eat? Imagine a website or app which only gives you 5 options based on these 5 factors.