René Bergenroth - Master of Arts Digital Media
Why I Live Differently Today! With this story, I want to emphasize that everyone should tell their story truthfully and honestly. I want to be a role model and advocate for everyone out there who shouldn't have to hide behind beautiful words.
My principles are simple: I see myself at work as someone who is your work friend. Someone you work together with on products and move them forward. In doing so, I bring the methods and utilize all roles to develop.
I used to get into heated discussions—until I learned to speak differently. Instead of blaming, I started expressing my feelings and needs clearly. Suddenly, conversations turned into real understanding. That's why I don't just advocate for nonviolent communication—I practice it myself.
Learn more about Nonviolent CommunicationEveryone should be able to participate in society—and in software products as well. That's why accessibility is so incredibly important to me.
Accessibility doesn't just start with the designer or with color choices; it begins with the basic HTML structure, ensuring that every screen reader can interpret the content more effectively. It also involves using plain language and extends to making even complex software structures easy to use.
After all, complexity is often just another word for an excuse not to explain things simply.
With my website, I try to make it as accessible as possible. I use the WCAG guidelines to ensure that my website is accessible to everyone. If you want to learn more.
Transparency is incredibly important to me—whether it concerns my work, myself as a person, or the
processes I'm involved in. I believe that openness fosters trust and clarity, both of which are
essential for effective collaboration and decision-making.
Of course, there are areas where transparency isn't necessary. For example, strategies don't always
need to be fully disclosed. Strategies serve a purpose, and sometimes, keeping them under wraps can
be part of their effectiveness.
However, there's a clear distinction between strategic decisions and intentional negative
manipulation. While influencing people positively through strategy is acceptable to me, attempting
to manipulate others negatively is something I cannot support.
At the moment, I am deeply disappointed by how many people make strategic decisions based solely on
personal preferences. In a company, this can be incredibly harmful and counterproductive.
That's why I strongly believe that all processes should be highly transparent—whether it's related
to promotions, salary levels, or ensuring fairness and equality for all individuals, regardless of
whether they are perceived as female, male, or non-binary.
I am gay.
I am married to a man and live my life the way I should—and the way I want
to.
What I didn't know for a long time is that within every gay man, lesbian, or anyone who loves
differently, there often exists an internal sense of rejection, homophobia, or some form of
discomfort—especially when someone feels at home in a gender different from the one assigned at
birth.
This isn't something that comes from nature; it's shaped by society. These feelings are socially and
politically constructed—they are not inherent.
That's why I advocate for complete openness. Just be open toward the person next to you, in front of
you, or standing with you. I will do the same because I also engage with people who love
differently—and that should never be a problem.
These are my core principles: Let people live. Accept one another. Because when we truly accept each
other, that is the highest form of love.
I am not a fan of bias. But whey live in us. I think it is a problem that we need to solve. I am not perfect and I make mistakes. But I try to learn from them and improve.
I see you are hooked. So then let's continue with more about me in communication, education and self-education. my principles and more.
Read more about meAnd now here comes my design skills. from analysis, evidence to synthesize and visual aesthetic and development. Yes, that's a lot and I know it, but I really try to master some of these fields to be a good designer.
Service Design is a holistic way for a business to gain a comphrehensive, empathic understanding of costumer needs.
Frontier Service Design
Observation is the most important of all methods to understand how people describe their everyday lives.
One of my favorite questions to ask is, "Can you describe your typical workday?" All I have to do then is listen to what people are actually doing—and what they're not. You wouldn't believe how many valuable insights this simple question can reveal. It can easily fill an hour with a meaningful, open, and contextual interview session.
Read more about Analyse & MethodsMaking the design process simple and transparent while shifting the focus away from the product team and the business toward the user. It's important to emphasize that design isn't just about aesthetics—such as colors, typography, graphics, or form. Design is measurable. This measurability allows us to analyze and address challenges more effectively, leading to better solutions that directly serve the user's needs.
Learn more about Evidence-based Design MethodsI'm not the main actor in creative thinking. I'm the provider of tools and methods and I let all team members be creative thinkers.
Sometimes, I'm not satisfied with it either, but I have to admit that when I work on a topic together with others in a group—developing and refining it using creative methods—the result is simply better. The direct feedback, the immediate communication, and the knowledge that others possess are incredibly valuable and would be lost along the way without collaboration or creative methods. That's why I believe the synthesis is so incredibly important—it should be done together, not alone.
I love color. I like to use it. If you don't like it, that's totally okay with me. Especially for you, I will create a design without colors, or perhaps just one or two.
I enjoy playing around with code a bit. I'm not a developer, but I can do some coding and have a decent understanding of Python, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS—even though, of course, the last two aren't considered programming languages by developers. And that's fine; it works for me.
I always try to keep developing my skills independently as much as possible. Stagnation just isn't an option for me—I really don't like it at all.
That's also more or less how I gauge my development skills. I wouldn't say I'm incredibly good at JavaScript or Python, but I understand how to implement certain things—and that's what matters most to me.
Why do I say that HTML feels a bit basic? Simply because there are so many standard elements in HTML that I still have to Google, and every time I'm amazed by how much functionality HTML offers right out of the box.
For example, those bars you can see down there? They're actually standard HTML components—a
meter tag, to be exact. Did you know that? I didn't until recently. And it's super cool
because the meter tag is accessible by default. You don't need to mess around with stacking divs on top
of each other; you can just use a standard element.
How cool is that?
Since everyone seems to be talking about AI right now, I won't. Why not? Because I'm already using it. For me, it's become part of my everyday life to use Large Language Models, or LLMs for short, to improve texts, perform text analyses, and enhance the quality of content through a Large Language Model. And this applies to all types of texts—from coding to analyzing insights and design evaluations. It's an incredibly powerful expert tool. Just use it.
The funny thing is, I'm currently using Cursor AI to describe and write my website faster and more efficiently—for HTML, as well as logic like JavaScript or PHP. And just look at this example: it says, I don't like it. How many people out there must have said exactly that for it to suggest this to me as a designer? Designers, what's going on with you out there? You shouldn't be out protesting against a tool—you should come together and speak out against real problems.
My favorite AI toolsRing Light - A dynamic lighting solution that creates immersive atmospheres through animated lighting effects.
The living room table is ready, stocked with drinks 🍾 and snacks 🍽️. We're playing a tabletop escape game. 🎮
✨ I lean back, gaze upward—and there it is. 👁️ A light that fills the room, creating an atmosphere that immerses me in Japanese mythology.🌸
This is what the Ring Light Project will be capable of in the future. 💡🚀🌌
Learn more about the Ring Light Project