# Designing research tools that reduce academic friction

Stuart McCamley — Cambridge University case study

## Context

The brief started with valuable workflows spread across brittle spreadsheets, one-off administration tools, and knowledge held by individual teams.

## Approach

The work used interviews and observation to separate necessary academic rigour from avoidable process friction. The product direction focused on fewer screens, stronger defaults, and clearer workflows.

## Outcome

The result was a clearer internal platform with reduced duplication, explicit responsibilities, and a more understandable route for new users.

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