This year, HOTO partnered with ArtCenter College of Design on a course exploring how design ideas can translate into tools for everyday life.
On August 15, ArtCenter students and faculty visited HOTO’s Shanghai headquarters for the final presentations and a design review with HOTO Founder and CEO Liu Lidan, Head of Tool Products Zheng Lu, and Product Director Lai Sheng.
The students approached the brief from different directions. Some started with broader design principles and asked what a tool could enable. Others looked at familiar tools and existing product experiences, then explored how they could work differently in new contexts.
What connected the projects was a common question: how can design make a tool more useful, intuitive, and relevant to the way people actually live?
Design Starts With the User
For HOTO, good design does not stop at the idea. The role of the HOTO team was to challenge assumptions, raise practical questions, and help students see where an idea could go next. Students were asked to explain not only what they designed, but why. What problem were they solving? What did they choose to prioritize? What would change when the concept met a real user?
During the review, Liu Lidan focused on the thinking behind each concept, challenging students to push their ideas further. Zheng Lu brought the discussion back to product design, functionality, and real-world use. Lai Sheng introduced different user profiles to help students examine how habits and expectations can change the way a tool is experienced.
While each project reflected a different interpretation of HOTO’s design philosophy, there was something enlightening from every young designers's passionate work. As the students shared the thinking behind their concepts, they inspired countless new possibilities for how tools might fit into everyday life.
Among the many strong contributions, four students stood out from the rest and received awards:
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First Place: Tingyi Liu
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Second Place: Zhang Zhang
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Third Place (Tie): David Webber & Sutton Caplan
Learning Through Exchange
The ArtCenter course offered HOTO a fresh perspective from the eyes of a new generation of designers. Moving forward, HOTO will continue to work with emerging designers and design communities to explore what tools can be, and how thoughtful design can make everyday work simpler, more capable, and more enjoyable.
Author: HOTO PR team
