Author: sheilapontis
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Hybrid designers
When I was giving my first steps into my research bubble someone pretty close to me told me that by the end of that journey I would be a different person. Now, quite a few years later, I can confirm that he was certainly right. Throughout that journey I read countless books and papers, met…
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Does chocolate make you (more) creative?
Chocolate is one of the most popular food types. Originally cacao was referred to as the ‘food of the Gods’. Nowadays, chocolate is often used as a way for saying thanks, goodbyes, apologies… It is also a loyal allied during long working hours, cold winter days, meetings and a great companion of coffee. But, most…
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Information design rationale as a teaching strategy
For me teaching is a challenging, dynamic but highly rewarding activity. Here in Europe, students come from and have different cultural and educational backgrounds, thus, have quite uneven levels of experience, are from varied age ranges, and speak many languages. Then, students’ pencil-cases and notebooks have been almost replaced by iPads, laptops and iPhones, facilitating…
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Applied information design: The encyclopaedia
My admiration for complex information design objects started long time ago, when I found the Quillet encyclopaedia (Argentinean editorial Arístides Quillet) that my mom has at home. This collection of 4 volumes was first published in Argentina around 1940s. Each volume covers a specific list of contents and almost everything can be found there. Visual…
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Transition times of information design
Information design is not an emerging field or subject area. This point has been highly discussed in an assortment of online and print articles, conferences and discussion groups. On-going debates defining its boundaries, its commonalities and differences with data visualisation, information architecture, and user-experience design pop up daily. Countless books have been published tackling the…
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Applied information design: Royal Observatory
This summer, for the first time I went to visit the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. One of the main attractions there is the Meridian Line, which divides the world into two imaginary halves: East and West. I found the whole journey, from Cutty Sark DLR station to the top of the hill pretty interesting and full…
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Bond. James Bond.
Long time ago, my Dad introduced me to James Bond, the British secret service agent created by writer Ian Fleming in 1953, and since then I became a fan of his movies (until Sean Connery was replaced by Roger Moore; there is only one JB for me). Lately, here in London, almost everything has been about…
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Changes, changes
Wikipedia defines a ‘Change’ as ‘The process of becoming different’, in many ways. Change is also defined as ‘something that presses us out of our comfort zone’. When we feel the need for a change? ‘Change is needed when all the props and practices of the past no longer work.’ We could add that everything…
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A closer view to creative thinking
How designers think or how the creative thinking and problem-solving processes work have been subjects of several studies (Goldschmidt, 1990; Cross et al., 1996; among others) involving a wide range of disciplines and fields from cognition, psychology, visual thinking to design research. Particularly, every time I need to write or think, I can easily be…
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From print to digital design
Two years ago, Mark Porter’s talk at CIDAG conference added some interesting insights to the on going print-digital media debate. In particular, Porter (2010) pointed out four key technological milestones in the communication media industry: print, Internet, mobile and tablet devices. Overall, his talk described the characteristics of each medium and functions, and it made…
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Underground Maps Unravelled: The Book
Yesterday, I was pleased to attend the launch of a new information design book. Max Roberts just published his second book, entitled ‘Underground Maps Unravelled. Explorations in Information Design’. This book uses the London underground diagrammatic map as the major case study, but other underground diagrammatic maps are also parts of the analysis, including that…
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Applied information design: Wimbledon
This year I finally decided to go and visit the Wimbledon tournament. Overall, I left that day having the feeling that every single detail has been planned ahead, including the wayfinding system. For those who are not that familiar with this 125-year old tennis tournament, at Wimbledon five major and four junior events are played…
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