InformeDesign - Happy Birthday

InformeDesign just turned 5. Happy Birthday!

5-years of of providing an online research and communication tool for Designers.

It is a nice looking website, but unfortunately I couldn't find much about the use of Art in HealthCare.

So how do you actually use the site to find information on a specific topic? Just look at the top of each page and you see the search tools:

Here is what they suggest:

Searching for information can be done in two ways:

1) you can type in the topic or term that describes your interest in the "Search Searchable Database" box on the upper right hand corner of any Web page and click on "GO," or

2) you can browse through our categories listed under three main topics: Spaces, Issues, and Occupants by clicking on one of those three yellow boxes to locate Research Summaries that have been coded by InformeDesign using keywords within the Research Summary.

I typed "Art in HealthCare" in the search field and got 8 articles, none of which dealt with art in any depth.

I then browsed the categories by selecting: Space: HealthCare: Hospital. This turned up 47 articles. Again, no specific articles on the use of Art, but they did have one on "Wayfinding in Large Hospitals", "Health Benefits of Including Nature Within Hospitals" and "Pediatric Healing Gardens".

I found lack of articles on Art in HealthCare particularly disappointing since I know there are many excellent articles on this topic. Why are they not in the database?

The creator of InformDesign is the University of Minnesota; they work closely with the American Society of Interior Designers.

Most of the site remains free, but unfortunately you have to register to use it.

The website for InformeDesign is www.informedesign.umn.edu