From Confusion to Clarity: Designing Better Research Support Communication Systems for Pratt’s Diverse Faculty

A service design project that improves how faculty navigate research processes, supporting faculty success while strengthening institutional research identity and capacity.

⏰ Timeline

Oct’25 - Dec’25 (2 Months)

👥 Team

Roshni Ganesh

Carol Bai

Merlyn Koonamparampath

Rutuja Nagulpelli

👩🏽‍💻 My Role

  • Service Designer

Overview

This service design project enhances how faculty engage with the Office of Research and Strategic Partnerships (ORSP) at Pratt Institute.

Grounded in systems thinking and participatory design, it focuses on improving communication from ORSP to faculty.

While ORSP plays a key role in enabling research, partnerships, and funding opportunities across the institute, its processes, especially around project development, were fragmented, difficult to navigate, and inconsistently communicated.

Image Credits: Pratt ORSP Website

Approach

  • Service Safaris: Attended ORSP events and touchpoints to observe service delivery and faculty interactions in real-world contexts

  • Stakeholder Interviews & Shadowing: Engaged with ORSP team members and observed day-to-day workflows to understand processes, challenges, and communication flows

  • Co-Design Workshops: Collaborated with faculty to identify needs, map challenges, and co-create ideas to improve research support and communication

Project Goals

1

Improve communication from ORSP to faculty by defining the order of events

2

Make it easier for faculty to achieve their research goals through ORSP’s procedures and resources

3

Define archetypes and how to use them to improve support for diverse Pratt faculty

Value-Exchange Ecosystem

Pratt’s research ecosystem is driven by continuous value exchange between faculty, ORSP, and institutional partners, where each actor contributes and receives what is needed to move research forward.

Faculty contribute intellectual capital, innovation, and institutional prestige.

ORSP translates that innovation into fundable, compliant, and visible outcomes by coordinating the broader institutional ecosystem.

Institutional units (IRB, Finance, Legal, Academic Departments, and the Provost Office) provide the policies, approvals, compliance, and resources that make research possible, relying on ORSP to translate and manage these processes.

Together, these exchanges form a self-sustaining research ecosystem where value flows in multiple directions, supporting faculty success while strengthening institutional research capacity.

Co-Design Workshops

Co-design is a participatory design approach where the people who are directly impacted by a service become active partners in the design process, rather than passive subjects being studied.

In this case, Pratt faculty actively participated in shaping how communication between ORSP and faculty can be improved.

Instead of designing for them, we design with them.

Co-design Goals

1

Understand how faculty define their research personalities at Pratt

2

Identify the challenges and needs at each stage of research development

3

Co-create ideas for a better communication experience with ORSP

Workshop Structure

Workshop Activities

Activity 1 – Research Persona Mapping (25mins)

Goal: Help faculty reflect on and define their identities as researchers.

Process:
- Each participant received a blank template and a set of prompt cards.
- Participants selected, filled, and arranged cards inside their “brain” to visualize their research identity.
- Share and explain their research persona.

Activity 2 – Research Journey Co-Creation (40 mins)

Goal: Identify needs, challenges during research development, and co-create ideas for leveraging ORSP’s support across different research stages.


Process:
- Participants were guided through a scenario prompt, recalling their experiences working with ORSP.
- Using a journey map template (Planning → Proposal Development → Award → Post-Award), they mapped:
- Challenges / Needs
- Preferences / Support Ideas
- Facilitators encouraged reflection and idea generation for each stage.

Key Insights

1

Lack of Awareness & Difficulty in Navigating Pratt’s available Institutional Resources for
Research Development Support

2

Need for Enhanced Guidance in Positioning Art-Based and Intersectional Research Work and Outcomes Within Formal Research Frameworks

3

Difficulty Identifying Collaborative Partners and Navigating Funding Opportunities

4

Need for more simplified budgeting tools and Enhanced Support for other Administrative Tasks

5

Desire for stronger institutional recognition, acknowledgement and increased visibility of their research contributions.

Faculty Archetypes

Archetypes are representative profiles that capture the common behaviors, goals, needs, and challenges of a specific group of users. They are not real individuals but composites that reveal patterns across multiple faculty members.

Proposed Interventions


Drawing from insights generated during the co-design workshops, we collaboratively brainstormed opportunities and recommendations together with faculty to enhance how ORSP communicates with and supports them.

These ideas were shared with the ORSP team in a collaborative session to validate findings and gather targeted feedback. Based on this input, the concepts were reviewed and refined into two final intervention themes, outlined below in order of priority.

Intervention Theme 1: Visibility
Focused on increasing the discoverability of ORSP services, clarity of processes, and resources.

  • Intervention 1: Getting to know ORSP Better


Intervention Theme 2: Support Enhancements
Aimed at strengthening guidance, onboarding, and hands-on support for faculty at different stages of the research journey.

  • Intervention 2: Landing Page Redesign for Easy Information Access

  • Intervention 3: Regulated Appointment Scheduling & Faster Information Retrieval

  • Intervention 4: Strengthening ORSP Capacity for Art-Based & Intersectional Research

THEME: VISIBILITY | PRIORITY: HIGH

Event 1: ORSP Resource Fair

A semesterly institute-wide resource fair-style event to increase faculty awareness and understanding of ORSP’s research support services.

  • Builds faculty understanding of ORSP offerings

  • Creates space for conversations and support

  • Enables networking and community-building

  • Helps ORSP understand diverse research practices

THEME: SUPPORT ENHANCEMENTS | PRIORITY: MEDIUM

Event 2: IDC Accelerator Ambassadors - Departmental Research Showcase Series

A recurring or annual Research Showcase hosted within each department, where IDC Accelerator alumni present their research journey and outcomes.

  • Recognizes research achievements of Accelerator Hub Faculty

  • Encourages departments to share ongoing work

  • Builds visibility for ORSP’s role

  • Fosters collaboration and mentorship

THEME: SUPPORT ENHANCEMENTS | PRIORITY: HIGH

Landing Page Redesign for Easy Information Access

An onboarding hub that helps faculty quickly understand and navigate ORSP resources based on their goals and research stage.

Key Features:

  • Prominent CTA buttons

  • Clear information scan-ability

  • Personalized experience for different faculty types

  • “Contact ORSP” shortcut → simplified Project Discovery form that helps ORSP understand faculty research ideas and ongoing projects

Why:

  • Faculty feel overwhelmed by ORSP’s website

  • Difficult to locate relevant resources

  • Reduces repetitive email inquiries

  • Improves access to research support

THEME: SUPPORT ENHANCEMENTS | PRIORITY: HIGH

Appointment Scheduling System & ORSP Virtual Assistant

Key Features:

  • Automated appointment scheduling system

  • ORSP Virtual Assistant (chatbot)

Why:

  • Reduces friction with guided entry points

  • Cuts back-and-forth emails

  • Provides quick access to accurate information

  • Routes requests to the right ORSP staff

  • Improves efficiency and consistency

THEME: SUPPORT ENHANCEMENTS | PRIORITY: HIGH

Strengthening ORSP Capacity for Art-Based & Intersectional Research

Strengthen ORSP capacity by appointing a specialist in art-based, practice-led, and intersectional research to guide faculty and translate creative work into formal research frameworks, reinforcing Pratt’s creative research identity.

The Big Picture

This service blueprint provides a holistic, end-to-end view of ORSP’s service delivery, expanded from pre-award to the full research lifecycle with a strong emphasis on the overall faculty experience.


Informed by service safaris, stakeholder/faculty interviews, and shadowing, it highlights key gaps and opportunities, and shows where targeted interventions make ORSP’s services more accessible, user-friendly, and aligned with the diverse needs of Pratt faculty.

Key Learnings and more…

  • Client Collaboration
    Learning to translate the client brief into focused, actionable service design goals pushed me to think more strategically and align design decisions with real organizational needs.

  • Participant Recruitment
    I realized how much recruitment shapes the research itself. Working with busy faculty required proactive planning, flexibility, and thoughtful coordination to make participation feasible.

  • Co-Design & Systems Thinking
    Facilitating co-design workshops while thinking in systems was a meaningful learning curve. Balancing structure and openness, guiding conversations, and making space for diverse perspectives.

Conclusion

Want to dive deep?

  • View our full report for a comprehensive look at the research, process, and service design interventions.

“We really appreciate how the team comprehensively mapped our processes end-to-end and developed thoughtful archetypes. The proposed interventions give us a clear direction, and we’re excited to internally work through the logistics to begin implementing them.
”
— Pratt Office of Research and Strategic Partnerships Team