Much of our work on international design research projects is in locations other than the UK and the Netherlands, where the STBY offices are located. Supporting global innovation through design research means being able to respond to calls for input on strategic dilemmas from any team or department in a client organisation and with a focus that can span a range of locations around the world.
Immersive fieldwork: A deep understanding of people’s practices, motivations and experiences is essential in every setting. This can only be acquired by doing immersive fieldwork, spending time with people and engaging them in empathic conversations and other activities. Design abilities such as idea generation, prototyping and visualisation play a crucial role in these interactions. They enable the creation and expression of insights and innovative ideas that are strongly grounded in the markets and groups your company or organisation innovates for. Together with our international partners we have extensive experience in coordinating global design research projects in various locations simultaneously.
The Reach Network is a global partnership, co-founded by STBY in 2008. Working with our Reach partners enables us to undertake international projects at scale while maintaining and retaining the agility and flexibility of small, independent design companies that are firmly grounded in their local culture. This facilitates faster, cheaper, and more effective international collaborations than those possible via traditional models, which often rely on local translators, freelancers and local assistants supporting lead researchers who visit multiple global locations in order to ensure consistency. The Reach Network currently has 18 partners, located in 28 locations around the world, and with a total team of 158 people.
Some examples of projects we’ve worked on:
International research about local visual cultures
Co-creating insights on the far future
Trusting and engaging with health information
You can also read more about ‘global explorations’ in our publication Catalysts