Gestalt Error 409 – Design & Diskurs

Designdebatte #1: Design Thinking ist tot – Leider? Endlich?

For a long time, design thinking was the most popular design method. Designers tended to hate it more than they loved it. Today, the method seems to be disappearing more and more from agencies’ portfolios. So it’s time to take stock: What has design thinking done to designers—and, above all, to the meaning, impact, and self-image of design? We are pleased to invite you to a lively discussion in the chapel at the HfG Offenbach, featuring the following speakers:

Ben von Linde-Suden
Ben von Linde-Suden has been building bridges between users, business, and technology for over 20 years. As UX Director at Diconium (Volkswagen Group) and SIXT, he established user-centered design processes within agile development teams. He is convinced that UX responsibility belongs cross-functionally within the entire team.

Rebecca Könitzer
From design thinking to systemic change: As a former Design Director at IDEO, Rebecca embedded human-centered design in governments and corporations to drive sustainable value creation. Today, she empowers teams and leaders to radically combine strategy, innovation methods, and human depth.

Dr. Tim Seitz
Tim Seitz is a research associate at Goethe University Frankfurt. In his research, which is grounded in practice theory and process sociology, he is interested in the social relationship between problems and solutions—particularly when problems elude resolution.

Gestalt Error 409 is a blog that has been examining, questioning, and discussing design practice and theory from a wide variety of perspectives since 2022. For WDC 2026, there is now a program of discussions aimed at critically and constructively exploring both current and classic questions in design.