Tracer X Festool
5min
Teaching Festool to remember craft
Showing Festool how their Connected ecosystem could grow into a new service tier, from tracking tool data to carrying the craft knowledge with a software/hardware system that enables craft.
ROLE
UX Research
TYPE
Systemdesign
TIMEFRAME
Sep 26–Nov 26
I. CHALLENGE
Drowning in documentation.
Craftsmanship is under growing environmental pressure. Every board needs a reference number, every finished piece a passport, and by 2035 every step of craft has to be documented. In small workshops, that record lives in camera rolls, voice memos and scribbled notes, and what was decided on the last project is rarely findable on the next.
Saws that can talk.
Festool's Connected app already reads tool data and offers tips and how-to content in the mobile app. Extending it into a real knowledge network would give small workshops the support they need to carry the documentation load, turning tool data into useful reports and insights that carry craftsmanship forward.
How might Festool keep what its tools already measure
and turn it into the proof the workshop owes?
II. SOLUTION
Capture circular craft
Hardware
Handsfree and modular.
A magnetic sensor module clips onto the bone conduction headset or onto standard safety glasses, so the capture goes wherever the craftsperson already works. Cameras, microphones and thermal sensors record the job while the ear canal stays open for the machines and the people around.
AI Layer
Craft you can trace.
A magnetic sensor module clips onto the bone conduction headset or onto standard safety glasses, so the capture goes wherever the craftsperson already works. Cameras, microphones and thermal sensors record the job while the ear canal stays open for the machines and the people around.
Software
Everything in one place.
Every Trace lands in the Tracer app, ready on tablet, phone or pre-built in Festools Systainer. Bill of materials, insights and evidence sit next to the trace they came from, so the workshop, the site and the office see the same job.
Use Traces as knowledge.
Every trace feeds a knowledge base the craftsperson can ask at the bench. Sharpen a cut sequence, check a past decision, or hand a project to a colleague without losing what makes it work.
Send reports on the way.
Compliance reports for customers, authorities and stakeholders draft themselves from what the day already recorded. A quick review on the phone confirms it, and the paperwork is done before leaving the site.
III. DECISIONS
Decision 1
Augmentation, not automation.
Every job in a workshop day went into one of two piles, the ones a craftsperson would hand over and the ones they never would. Ordering material, identifying it and writing the paperwork moved to the AI, while the cut and the judgement behind it stayed with the master.
Update bill of materials
TRACER watches the bill of materials and flags missing or changed material. Craftsman checks the revised order and confirms it before it is sent.
Verify material provenance
Drafting reports
Decision 2
One session, three audiences
TRACER records the work once. The workshop uses it to coordinate the job. Authorities receive the proof they require. Customers can trace the material and see how the piece was made.
Decision 3
Extending the product line
We place TRACER as an independent venture over a new Festool Connected branded feature. Connected manages individual tools, batteries and service. TRACER follows the whole job across materials, workshop roles and handover. Its own service layer gives that project scope a clear home, while Festool brings the tools and workshop context it depends on.
X
IV. IMPACT
A new vision for Tools
Presented to Festool's design team on 5 February 2026. The experts confirmed the core assumption that documentation obligations are a major pain point in the trades rather than a side issue.
Festool also shared that AR headsets are already being discussed internally, which places TRACER inside a live strategic conversation at one of Europe's leading tool manufacturers rather than next to it.
ADC Talent Award Winner 2026
Hardware/Software Systems
TRACER also received a Bronze Nail at the ADC Talent Award 2026 in Hardware/Software Systems. The ADC selects a small number of student projects across Germany each year, drawn from many submissions.