Immersive Design Research Lab Operation Redesign

Goal

  • To redesign the structure of a lab to allow for it to sustain more research assistants

 

Process

  • Create a survey to get insight from lab members about their goals and expectations for the lab

  • Create a more documented process and gather information about structures

  • Organized and linked research lab projects

  • Implemented and organized lab member suggestions

Challenge

  • There is no current lab structure that is documented

  • Lab sustained a maximum of 2-3 research assistants previously

 

Result

  • Resigned lab structure

  • Lab structure can sustain more research assistants

  • Reduction in the time needed to find project information

 Background

The Immersive Design Research Lab (IDRL) is a research lab at Cal-State Long Beach. The lab allows the interdisciplinary research team and students to collaborate with various stakeholders on projects from sustainability to economic equity.

My role in the research lab is lab manager, so I first thought of my previous research lab experiences and how each is structured differently. We also wanted to keep the lab mindset (adapted from Open IDEO) that there is no hierarchy in place for the lab, each member's role is important to the team from manager to designer to engineers to researchers. Also in the mindset, each individual works collaboratively and independently of each other.

From working in the IDRL lab, the design process that the lab follows is the 4Dā€™s (Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver). When creating the lab structure, I decided to go through the design process and document the process on Miro (virtual whiteboard tool).

Discovery Phase

In the discovery phase of the design process, I brainstormed and researched various topics to consider for structuring the lab from the onboarding process to the organizational structure. When creating new structures it is best to utilize information found from best practices and learn from previous research to create more robust systems.

Defining Phase

In the defining phase of the design process, I needed to define what the IDRL team needs, so I can integrate their suggestions and expectations into the lab structure. I also started defining what is expectations of the IDRL team members in terms of code of conduct and ethics.

Develop Phase

In the develop phase, a questionnaire was created to gather the expectations of lab members. A lab structure was created for lab members to keep track of tasks and responsibilities.

Delivery Phase

In the delivery phase, I showed the team what is created for the lab structure and explained to them where each project is located. All the projects are also linked to the lab structure board, so all members can save time by going to the main board. The Miroboard was also organized by projects and images were added to each project, so all projects can be easily found and accessed.

Lab structure was presented to the supervisor and lab members for everyone to give their input and understand the task/project tracking system.