Research in ID-StudioLab is user-centered and design-driven. Central to the work are the user's needs and wishes, how to determine what they are, and how to use this knowledge in designing products that cater better to these needs and wishes.

Since its foundation, ID-StudioLab projects have paid attention to four factors: senses and emotion in users, intelligence in products, and inspiration for designers. The emphasis is somewhat different in some of the projects, and in some of the people, and in some of the research groups.

Research projects in the studiolab generally fall within a number of themes:

Design for experience, ...

We often experience a product just by looking at it or thinking about it, but mostly when actively using it. In this, we use all our senses, our mind, and our body. The Design for Experience research group examines the way people experience everyday products.

...for intelligence,...

As products have become more intelligent and connected, the challenges of developing product systems to that are context-sensitive are tackled by Social and Contextual Interaction Design

...and for inspiration...

The ways designers can learn about user contexts, how they can communicate about these and other design knowledge using traditional and new media, and how this knowledge is used in the design process is attacked by Design Techniques.

...and still more.

Despite the overlaps, not everything fits into these categories, so we list other research projects that don't fit obviously into the themes above.

publications about and by

We've written two overview papers, reviewing a number of sample projects across the ID-StudioLab. The first was a year after the StudioLab's foundation, in IDSL 2000; the second was after five years, in IDSL 2005. You can download both of these by clicking on their names. But if you really want to know what research we do, we suggest you browse through our publications overview, or look in the publications pages of the themes listed above (and under the people listed on the people page).