Benjamin Franz is a founder, an author, and above all, a technology enthusiast. Even in his early years, he regularly disappeared under the revolving stage of a theater to inspect the technology while the rest of the audience enjoyed the play on stage. This enthusiasm for technology, of course, led him to study engineering at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. During his studies, he came to the conclusion that, in addition to technology, one thing is crucial for outstanding products: usability. Fascinated by this topic, Benjamin Franz specialized in human-machine interaction. In his doctoral thesis, which was awarded the Walter Rohmert Research Prize, he answered the question of how people want to drive highly automated cars. In 2013 he founded the agency Custom Interactions (e.g., 5 * Red Dot Design Award Winner 2019 to 2023). He also works as a speaker and lectures at the Technische Universität Darmstadt.