January 6, 2003—The University of Minnesota and the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) recently launched InformeDesign, a Web site for design practitioners. The site includes an online searchable database to provide design practitioners with design and human behavior research to inform their design decisions and improve the quality of their design solutions.
ASID granted $1.18 million to the University of Minnesota’s department of design, housing and apparel for the project created by coordinator Denise Guerin and director Caren Martin. InformeDesign’s staff has been identifying and transforming scholarly research from approximately 50 journals for more than a year and say that the knowledge shared by InformeDesign will change the way design and architecture, among other design practices, are practiced.
For example, an interior designer working on a new retail space could refer to InformeDesign’s Research Summaries to determine what influence sound and color have on the buying habits of consumers. Or, an interior designer and architect working together to develop an assisted living facility could refer to the Research Summaries to determine the types of design planning elements that could be incorporated in the space to encourage socialization of dementia patients.
The site also offers numerous other services and tools, such as a glossary of terms; a calendar of research events, with links to sponsoring organizations; discussion forums; and collaborative research opportunities, intended to bring the work of design practitioners and researchers together to increase the body of knowledge and improve the design of the built environment.
InformeDesign’s Web site is free.
