Project Scope » Online Knowledge Base

A Digital Communication Platform

The Cultural Library website is the digital communication platform and structural backbone for the on-site project work, providing  a workshop framework, input and methodological support. The intranet of the platform of the participating workshop teams helps to prepare the work before the on-site workshop and supports the systematic analysis by using a  ›just-in-time‹ storage model for the project findings during on-site work (in the most cases, there will be no time after the workshop to do so). Its structure provides guidance through the process while still being open and flexible. It is based on the items, described below and on momentary snapshots. It focuses on questions, reflections and interpretations. The platform is permananet and long-lasting, as all the projects, workshop results and items are available for further use and interpretations to all parties. The digital communication platform is the next issue concerning the ongoing improvement of the Cultural Library, and this will be addressed in future projects: the current version shows a clear framework for further developments.items items, described below and on momentary snapshots. It focuses on questions, reflections and interpretations. The platform is permananet and long-lasting, as all the projects, workshop results and items are available for further use and interpretations to all parties. The digital communication platform is the next issue concerning the ongoing improvement of the Cultural Library, and this will be addressed in future projects: the current version shows a clear framework for further developments.

The online platform allows visitors an easy access to the library by pictures and questions guiding through the site, obviating the need to deal with the whole complexity of the project in one go. These pictures and questions (derived from the individual ›items‹) are taken randomly from the library and displayed on the starting page: this allows the visitors (or users) to jump straight into a theme, a topic or an item.


The reference number (e.g. #3) is available for every item in the library. These numbers can be entered directly in the search field – a quick way to find items (if the numbers are known). This connects the website as a dynamic digital knowledge base directly with the ›physical world‹: to the publication »Learning from Nairobi – Mobility«, to exhibitions and, in the future, maybe even to the places that have been observed using tags like QR code, linking directly to the Cultural Library website.


There are multiple ways to access the content of the online knowledge base: for other visitors, the Cultural Library website offers an overview of the more than 15 projects that have taken place in the last five years, being both a valuable source for current Cultural Library projects and other design and research projects that deal with the topics that have been researched. 

Each Cultural Library project consists of several topics (mainly ›micro-events‹ / situations). During a workshop, every student team is  dealing with one topic. The 5-day-workshop structure and the Cultural Library website supports the teams during the process of research and analysis: The composition of the topic sites and the  topic sheets in the intranet help to structure the work. The main part of the workshop is the work with the item sheets – each topic is classified and saved under one or several items (snapshots), captured by items (observation / interview / probe). The type and number of items depends not only on the topic itself, but also on the research methods or the group knowledge concerning methodological work. All the items of one topic (including their numbers) are shown in a short synopsis that allows the reader to get a quick overview of the content and the approach of the topic. 

With Cultural Library, we are not aiming at solving problems –  knowing that designers shift from creating solutions to defining problems. With Cultural Library, we want to go one step further: to understand the complexity of the aspects of a specific situation, to understand the facets of the usage of products or the behaviour of people as completely as possible without limiting ourselves by concentrating on a particular problem from the start. As a methodological aid for this process, the topic and item sheets