54 / PROQUEST / METHOD STUDY

Roleplaying the researcher

Making the activities and constraints of academic research tangible through roleplay, LEGO, paper maps, and improvised workflows.

MY SCOPECOLLABORATIVE RESEARCH METHODTEAMPROQUEST PRODUCT + RESEARCH TEAMTIMEFRAMEPROQUEST

01 / THE PROBLEM

Academic research is often described as a set of abstract steps: find sources, evaluate them, write, cite, and share. We wanted to understand the lived activity behind those labels and create a shared language for the team.

02 / THE EVIDENCE

In a one-off collaborative session, team members roleplayed different research activities and populated a physical model with people, places, source materials, decisions, questions, and breakdowns. The tabletop became a visible research ecosystem rather than a linear process diagram.

03 / THE DECISION

Use participatory modeling to externalize the system. LEGO figures, paper cards, string, and hand-drawn annotations made relationships and uncertainty discussable in the room.

04 / THE COLLABORATION

This was a team method study rather than a product delivery. The value came from making the model together, challenging one another’s assumptions, and noticing where the imagined research journey became complicated or contradictory.

05 / THE OUTCOME

The exercise produced a memorable shared artifact and a richer way to talk about academic research: not one clean workflow, but a network of actors, institutions, tools, obligations, and decisions.

06 / THE REFLECTION

Not every useful design method needs to become a product feature. Sometimes a one-off physical model gives a team the language it needs to see a problem differently.

PROJECT EVIDENCE

Collaborative tabletop model of academic research activities — 01 / The full model shows academic research as a network of people, institutions, sources, tasks, questions, and decisions rather than a single linear path.

Overhead view of the roleplay activity map — 02 / An overhead view makes the method legible: actors and artifacts are placed in relation to one another, with strings and annotations marking dependencies and uncertainty.

Detail of the home-office and researcher portion of the model — 03 / One section of the model explored the everyday research setting: home office, sources, competing obligations, and the desired outcome of the work.

Research workflow detail with LEGO figures and paper cards — 04 / The team used figures, paper cards, and physical barriers to represent roles, handoffs, tools, and points where the research process became difficult.

Decision and source-management detail from the research model — 05 / Handwritten questions and sketched interfaces captured decisions that are easy to miss when academic research is reduced to a set of product screens.

Full collaborative roleplay model on the workshop table — 06 / The final view preserves the roughness of the exercise: a temporary, shared model built to help the team think together.