New IDE research web pages
Any of you browsing the faculty website of late will have noticed that our research pages have come to life. Designed to help spark collaborations inside and outside the IDE research community, the pages have been structured around IDE’s three research themes of Health, Mobility and Sustainability, three Delft Design perspectives of People, Technology and Organisation; and Designing Design. These pages not only give an insight into what each theme means for research at IDE, they also offer increased findability of researchers according to their research interests and expertise. This expertise is evidenced with a selection of current research projects, as well as links to the latest Delft Design stories and the most pertinent Delft Design Labs, giving a strong sense of IDE’s strength in design research.
The pages are the result of an 18 month process which started when Director of Research, Pieter Jan Stappers posed the question of how best to showcase the rich diversity of research created in the Faculty of Industrial Design, before setting to work with the research community and the faculty communications team.
Mapping IDE’s Interconnectedness
The starting point, rather fittingly, was research. The fact that IDE’s 250- strong research community is interconnected was clear, but to what extent and how was a bit of a puzzle. Professor Stappers created a survey to help find some answers. Researchers were asked firstly to list their expertise using keywords, such as 3D printing and context mapping. Then they were encouraged to associate their research with seven platforms identified as fundamental to IDE research (People, Technology and Organisation; Health, Mobility and Sustainability; Designing Design). The results can be seen in a visualisation which also formed an important part of the recent research assessment:
This mapping exercise not only confirmed that the seven platforms were a good way to structure research content on the IDE website, they also showed the detailed connections between themes, disciplines and researchers.
Findability of Researchers and Research
This valuable data was linked both to the online profiles of researchers and to current research projects, helping fuel a search engine. Not only can visitors to the website “meet the researchers”, they can also quickly identify the researchers most relevant to their areas of interest. Say you want to find out about IDE research and researchers working on the topic of public transport, by visiting the Mobility Platform, you can filter using the buttons.
Current Projects
Researchers and the communications team have worked hard over the summer, collecting information on our current research projects and presenting them in an accessible way. Each project on the website is included in at least one theme and one disciplinary perspective, increasing their findability. Each projects lists the researchers working on them too and offers the possibility of sharing outcomes and links to relevant collaboration partners and web pages.
Designing Design
What sets IDE apart in design research is our development of tools and methods. We’ve grouped this research under Designing Design and will expand this section of our website in the coming months to include design methods, research outcomes and handy toolkits for designers, developed by our researchers. Go check it out here!
If you want your research project to be shown on the new pages to increase your professional online presence, let the communications team know, by emailing communication-io@tudelft.nl. Seize the opportunity!