Author: sheilapontis
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Design Education 3.0: challenges and learnings
Last month I travelled all the way to Patras, Greece to attend the 7th International Conference on Typography & Visual Communication (ICTVC) at the University of Patras. To address this year’s theme focused on challenging design paths, I presented an analysis of how design education and, specifically, information design instruction have changed in the last ten years based on my experience…
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A collaborative and active teaching approach anchored in info design
As an information designer, visuals–such as colors, shapes, and graphic elements–play a key role in both my teaching prep and my classes as they help me think, uncover connections, see hidden parts in a story, and work more collaboratively with students and teaching assistants. Particularly, since I have started teaching design to a non-design audience,…
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Now I See: Making Visual Sense Exhibit
If you are around Princeton, NJ this summer, check out Now I See: Making Visual Sense exhibit! This exhibit features a selection of Princeton students’ exercises and projects from EGR 381: Design for Understanding. This class introduces students to information design, and focuses on learning how visually communicate with clarity. Pieces shown here illustrate students’ learning progression,…
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Don’t blame technology for poor information design
Many people new to design believe that technology occupies a big role and working with professional software is essential to create effective results. Moreover, many think that not knowing how to work with the appropriate software is the main difference between designers and them, and what gets in the way of creating high quality designs.…
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Design pillars: understanding, intention, consistency
Design education provides the theoretical foundation to understand why a design solution can be effective and why another solution is most likely to be misleading. This knowledge helps designers use design principles and visual skills with intention and in a deliberate way in any situation For example, rather than using colors at random to code information…
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Event: Understanding and Designing for People
How can you help people understand something complex if you don’t understand people first? Rather than rely on intuition or assumptions, information designers need evidence gathered from real people about how they think, feel, and behave in order to inform the design of effective solutions. They need field research. Next week, I will lead a…
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Implications of dual coding for information design
As part of a project I am collaborating on, I recently learned about dual coding theory which was introduced by Allan Paivio in the 1970s. In short, dual coding is a cognitive psychology theory that argues that the use of visuals and words can aid the explanation of new content (to expand on learned material) and improve…
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Embrace Creativity: It is more than a buzzword
Teaching creativity has helped me understand myself better and gained an appreciation for how empowering learning (or re-learning) to think creatively–a.k.a. think “outside the box”–can be for many people. Interestingly, 20 years ago, creativity was not taught explicitly in design education. Instead, exercises, such as creating 25 explorations of textures or coming up with 10 different…
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Maybe you don’t need design thinking
Design thinking has become a buzz word. Everyone wants to learn it and use it. And if you Googled the term, you get more than 863,000,000 results in under 50 seconds! However, in some cases people don’t know what design thinking is and why they want to work with it. I witnessed this phenomenon first…
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Understanding the use of Field Research in Design
Last month, I attended the Decipher Conference organized by AIGA Design Educators Community and hosted by the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (Michigan). The conference was focused on themes related to defining, doing, disseminating, supporting, and teaching design research. In addition to the holistic approach…
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10 Tips to support learners’ journey
This summer I went back to school. Well, not literally to a university or college, but to the experience of taking classes and learning something new for a prolonged period of time (five intense weeks!). Perhaps because of my experience in education, I couldn’t help but looking at this learning experience from both sides: as…
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The book is here!
Almost two years ago, I was in my train ride to work and started writing a book proposal based on an idea that had been in my mind for a long time. Today the book arrived! Making Sense of Field Research: A Practical Guide for Information Designers. More information about the book here, here, and here. And…
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