New Possibilities in the Design of Interactive Experiences

Daniel Hepperle, a native of Kirchheim unter Teck, has always been fascinated by human-computer interactions. After graduating from high school, the now 38-year-old first earned a bachelor's program in Online Media from Furtwangen University. He then worked as an Interaction & Motion Designer at HQ Interaktive Mediensysteme GmbH, where he designed and developed learning applications and instructional videos for clients such as UBS, Targobank, and Festo. For his master’s degree in “Interactive Media Design,” Daniel Hepperle returned to Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences from 2014 to 2017. While still a student, he founded Zone GmbH, through which he developed, among other things, a location-based app to promote neighborhood interaction.

After completing his master's degree, which was honored with the Aesculap Award, he worked on projects such as “Musiklusion” as part of his freelance work. This project enabled people with cognitive impairments to have barrier-free access to active music-making through individually tailored interfaces. At the same time, he began teaching courses at various universities and was ultimately hired in 2018 as a research assistant at the Department of Informatik and Wirtschaftsinformatik at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences.

As vice spokesperson for the Institute for Intelligent Interaction and Immersive Experience, he established the Lab for Intelligent Human-Machine-Human Interaction and served as a lecturer for courses such as media technology, human-machine communication, and perceptual and intuitive user interfaces. In 2025, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Hohenheim on the topic “Exploring the Potential of Immersive Virtual Reality for Social Science Research,” graduating summa cum laude. For his outstanding achievements during his doctoral studies, he also received a fellowship from the Heinrich Hertz Society.

For Daniel Hepperle, however, research does not end in the lab but finds its place at the heart of society. His projects, which have been featured at venues including the Venice Architecture Biennale and the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, invite viewers to shift their perspectives. They illustrate how complex topics can be made tangible through the synthesis of scientific rigor and artistic research practice.

Starting March 1, he will bring this interdisciplinary expertise to the classroom as a professor of Augmented Reality Development at the Faculty of Media at Hochschule Offenburg. At the same time, he will advance his research in the field of Extended Reality (XR) to actively help shape the future of interactive experiences.