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 4Dās (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).