The Design Research Observatory is a curated collection of exemplary Design Research projects presented through an accessible online platform.
It exists to help anyone, from curious newcomers to seasoned experts, discover what Design Research is, understand why it matters, and explore the diverse ways it creates value in our rapidly changing world.
Our long-term vision is ambitious: to help Design Research become as valued, understood, and accepted as any other type of scientific research. It's a big objective, and the Observatory is just a small piece in that puzzle, but an important one.
I'm absolutely delighted to be writing this introduction. It comes after years of work, and now, we are about to share the site publicly for the first time.
It is one part of a project called Design Research Works, whose mission is to show the world what we can gain from Design Research. This is the result of a £2 million investment from UK Research and Innovation. So far we published over 50 research papers, made a feature-length documentary film, and many other initiatives in support of our core mission.
In the spirit of Design Research, the Observatory is a living prototype. So, if you see something that needs fixing, or that you think should be different, then do let us know!
What is the Observatory?
It is a curated collection of Design Research that are presented on this website.
To navigate the site you can click on the Projects link in the menu, that will show you all the projects that we currently have in the collection.
We also have a Glossary section. This works a bit like a dictionary of Design Research keywords and terminologies, giving very short definitions and overviews.
At the top of the Projects page you will see all the Glossary items listed. You can use these as filters. If you click on a particular Glossary item, then only related Projects will be shown.
This works the other way around too, if you are browsing the Glossary, then you can see all the Projects that are associated with a particular Glossary entry.
Last, but not least, we have the Curators section. The Observatory is very much a curated collection. We made a decision to not try and list every example of Design Research that ever existed, but instead to try and build a smaller collection that shows the diversity and range of Design Research in all its glory.
On the Curators page you will see the ever-growing team of volunteers who have helped us to put that collection together. I would like to extend a massive thank you to all the Curators! We couldn't have made this without you.
Alongside, I would like to extend an open invitation. If you have an idea for an entry into the Observatory and would like to become a curator, then please get in touch.
Who is the Observatory for?
We created the Observatory with different groups in mind.
For those who are new to the world of Design Research, the aim is to make it easier to get started, to find examples, and understand how and why you might benefit from Design Research.
But, we found experts also suffered from some of the same challenges, so the Observatory is also for those who know about Design Research but would benefit from an easy-to-navigate way of expanding their horizons and finding new examples.
In fact, the Observatory is for everyone! Design Research is a young field that isn't widely known across the world of research and innovation. We are trying to change that. So, the Observatory is a way to help increase awareness and knowledge about the value of Design Research for everyone.
The Observatory is for beginners and experts alike... actually it's for everyone
How was it made?
The Observatory was meticulously researched. During a series of Lab Engagements at world leading Design Research labs we presented our thinking about the project to try and understand if the Observatory was needed, what it needed to do, and how best to achieve that.
As our series of workshops progressed so did our thinking, and we eventually arrived at the concept of the Observatory (after also considering repositories, atlases, and even online communities).
Based on all that research we prototyped this design, tested it, refined it, and finally built the version you see here today.
We published two research papers about the process along the way:
I want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone that was involved in that part of the process. In particular to Mayane Dore, David Philip Green, Jesse Josua Benjamin, Claire Coulton, and Zach Mason, who were all integral to making the Observatory a reality, as well as the hundreds of people who contributed to our thinking along the way.
Additional thanks to Mike Harmer, the web designer who built the site you see today and to our project manager Saadia Shaah, who is overseeing the day-to-day running of the site.
The site is built in Jekyll and is managed using Cloudcannon.
What do we want to achieve?
Our guiding principle is to show the world what it can gain from Design Research. The foundation of the mission is that our world is more complex and faster paced than it ever has been before.
Meanwhile, the traditional research approaches that we used to rely upon to make sense of the world around us are increasingly limited in the whirlwind of the 21st century.
Design Research's dynamism offer the solution to this with responsive, adaptive, and creative alternatives. The film below, made back in 2020, summarises our thinking on this.
The role of the Observatory in our overall mission is to make the value of Design Research more accessible by providing a carefully chosen and simply explained selection of examples.
We hope that professionals, businesses, civil-servants, consultants, policy-makers, and even politicians will begin to see the value of this way of trying to understand the world.
We hope the Observatory will play a part in Design Research becoming part of mainstream science
While those are the high level aims we also want to galvanise, nurture, and celebrate the Design Research community.
Across the globe there are thousands of talented individuals, teams and organisations who are using Design Research in a plethora of ways to try and make the world a better place.
By collecting these examples together in the Observatory we want to champion this work and the people doing it.
Help us, join in, get involved!
As I write this the Observatory is just at the beginning of its story, and that is a journey that can be transformed, accelerated and shared by you.
You can help us by shaping and contributing to that story. There are a few ways to do this.
1. Share it
If you like the Observatory, please share it, tell your friends, put it on your students reading lists, share with your colleagues, post about it on social media. A quick post to LinkedIn, BlueSky, Twitter or to your mailing list will do us the world of good. Join us in helping let the world know that the Observatory exists.
2. Contribute to it
Join our wonderful team of Curators! Maybe you looked at our examples and thought of a project that would really add to the collection? If so, then contact us. We have a simple submission process that's very easy and should only take a few minutes of your time.
3. Feedback
We are very proud of the Observatory already, and have tried very hard to make something that is accessible, attractive, and useful. But, we can always do better and our ears are open to suggestions. If you have constructive feedback for us, please send it on!
4. Use it
Most of all, we hope that you can get involved by using the Observatory. As the collection grows we hope that what it has to offer will get richer, more diverse, and will become a valuable resource for years to come.
Help us by sharing, contributing, giving feedback, and using the Observatory
A personal note of gratitude
In the time I have been leading Design Research Works I have been humbled in so many ways. The dedication of the team that have made the Observatory a reality is astounding. The willingness of people all over the world to get involved, contributing their time, knowledge and skill, just for the joy of a shared goal, has blown my mind. I have experienced endless patience, forgiveness, care, good humour, and boundless creativity. To everyone who has contributed to this work, and to the broader project, I am overflowing with gratitude. Thank you!
For Rachel
One final note for this launch blog, and that is to acknowledge the pivotal role of Professor Rachel Cooper in this project and in the Design Research movement as a whole.
Rachel established Imagination Lancaster, the research centre that has made all of this a possibility. Rachel supported me successfully applying for the Fellowship that funds this work. She died of gallbladder cancer earlier this year and is sorely missed. I'm not sure if it is standard practice to dedicate the launch of a project website to someone, but it seems appropriate on this occasion.
She mentored me and the project with pointed challenging questions, but unwavering belief that our journey and the destination were equally valuable. Rachel's loss is felt by our whole team at Imagination Lancaster but also to thousands of Design Researchers across the globe whose lives and careers she touched.
I'm sad that I cannot show the finished Observatory to Rachel. Of course she would likely have critiqued the design, branding, and strategy. This may have been uncomfortable but would have been worth its weight in gold. Even without her incisive input for this last part of the project, I'm confident that we have made something that she would have been proud of.
I'd like to dedicate the launch of the Observatory to Rachel. To her memory, all she achieved in her life, and to all she continues to achieve through the enduring impact her legacy has on the world.