Informing, inspiring, and engaging society with EMBL’s research, services and training
Our framework for the first week is to focus on the brand map as well as the brand strategy and related initial design principles. We started with a brainstorming session, so called “the first burst”. That implies answering questions like “what do we need”, “what are the blockers”,…
The word “brand” has become a common word in our daily language, but it is used in different contexts with different meanings. The word has its origin in ranching, when branding marks were seared into an animal’s skin to identify its owner. Television and print advertising saw the word being…
The purpose of intra1 was to understand how people currently use EMBL’s intranets. Specifically, we wanted to: Understand audience behaviours Define audience segments Define the functions and the scope of EMBL’s intranets Inform the EMBL community about projects to rebuild EMBL’s core…
Last week, Dan and I got a chance to present the work of the Strategy and Communications team to EMBL’s senior management, at the meeting of the Scientific Strategy and Management Advisory Committee (SSMAC) in Hamburg. It’s approximately one year since the Strategy and…
In the 20th Century the Modernists believed that good design was about usefulness, how well an object performed its function. For others, good design is more subjective, it’s about style and taste. I see it a little differently: I define design as the deliberate creation of value for an…
We are looking for EMBL people to help with our intranet user research. By keeping a digital diary you can help us to better understand how you use digital resources in the course of your work and home life. This will help us to design things that work better for you. We are asking for…
On Tuesday, 18 April we kicked off the first research phase for the EMBL intranet project. This first phase, or sprint, will run until 12 May and we’ve codenamed it ‘intra1’. The purpose of this sprint is to: understand current user behaviours define audience segments establish…
We are going to be kicking off some long-term projects to redesign EMBL’s web presence. Before we begin, it’s important to establish a clear understanding of what we mean by this. Are we talking about: A new website? The website? All of EMBL’s websites? We are thinking of this…
EMBL hasn’t really had any social media guidelines for users. As we build our community I’ve been drafting and redrafting advice and guidelines for our staff. These are now ready to start sharing and asking for comment. Do these make sense? Do they answer your questions? Are they…
If you have attended one our weekly production meetings you will have noticed that when we agree to run a story and we have defined broadly how it should be treated, one of the first things we do is nominate a story owner. What does this mean? Story owners have two key functions: Liaising with…