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.

ORSP plays a key role in helping faculty with:

  • Identify funding opportunities

  • Project discovery and development

  • Proposal writing and budgeting

  • Compliance and IRB review

  • Post-award management

Project Goals

Image Credits: Pratt ORSP Website

1

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

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 Goals

2

Identify the challenges and needs at each stage of research development

3

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

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.

1

Understand how faculty define their research personalities at Pratt

3

Co-create ideas for a better communication experience with ORSP

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.

1

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

4

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

Key Archetypes

  • Newbie to Pratt

  • Research Newbie

  • Experienced Researcher

  • Partnership Guy

  • The Practitioner

  • The Go Getter

For Pratt faculty, archetypes reflect the diverse ways educators engage with research. They help inform tailored support and communication by capturing varying levels of familiarity, motivation, and needs from onboarding and guidance to efficiency and administrative support.

How to use these Faculty Archetypes?
Profile: Highlights key characteristics of the faculty type.
Needs: Identifies the targeted support required from ORSP.

Note: Most faculty will not fit into a single archetype. Many reflect a mix of traits, so support and interventions should remain flexible and adaptive.

2

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

Value-Exchange Ecosystem

Approach: Co-Design Workshops

Workshop Activities

Key Insights

2

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

Faculty Archetypes

Proposed Interventions

THEME: VISIBILITY | PRIORITY: HIGH

Event 1: ORSP Resource Fair


D


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

Workshop Structure

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.

3

Difficulty Identifying Collaborative Partners and
Navigating Funding Opportunities


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

THEME: SUPPORT ENHANCEMENTS | PRIORITY: MEDIUM

Event 2: IDC Accelerator Ambassadors - Departmental Research Showcase Series

THEME: SUPPORT ENHANCEMENTS | PRIORITY: HIGH

Landing Page Redesign for Easy Information Access

THEME: SUPPORT ENHANCEMENTS | PRIORITY: HIGH

Appointment Scheduling System

The Big Picture

THEME: SUPPORT ENHANCEMENTS | PRIORITY: LOW

ORSP Virtual Assistant

5

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

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.