Author: sheilapontis
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Creativity from the inside out
Creativity is often taught and greatly valued in business schools and organizational contexts. Multiple workshops, courses and programs equip future leaders with tools and strategies to innovate, run brainstorming sessions, and make the most of creativity. However, it is rare to see a truly unique, never-seen-before idea or product. The gap between theory and practice…
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NEW BOOK! Information Design Unbound
After many years in the making, I’m thrilled that my new book, Information Design Unbound: Key Concepts and Skills for Making Sense in a Changing World (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, UK), co-authored with Michael Babwahsingh, is now in production and will be out in early November. The book presents a fresh perspective on information design for…
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A human-centered research clinic for information designers: your questions answered!
In information design, every decision, from the content and organization to the visual language of the communication, should be intentional and centered on people and their needs: visual (or sensory), cognitive, cultural, emotional, and personal, among others. Hence, deep understanding of people is essential to make informed decisions. Regardless of project complexity or years of…
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Dream, Simplify, Imagine
In times where everything is getting more complex and technology driven, I have found myself increasingly adopting the opposite behaviors – simple and hands-on – in both my professional activities and my daily life tasks. My classes are much simpler than years ago in that every semester I remove content to be able to focus…
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Creativity: 2023 Torrance Festival of Ideas
I’m pleased to be presenting part of my creativity work at the 2023 Torrance Festival of Ideas in April. In its third edition, the online festival, organized by the Torrance Center for Creativity & Talent Development (UGA Mary Frances Early College of Education), is a free, cultural event where more than 20 professionals, academics, and…
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Creativity + Science: Podcast episode
Images from students’ final presentations (Fall, 2022) Domain-specific creativity research in science – such as in biology, chemistry, or ecology – is rare, despite the pressing need for a comprehensive understanding of scientific creativity for enhancing science. Most prior research has focused on studying scientific genius (Big C) rather than the role of creativity in…
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Are we preparing students to successfully navigate complexity and rapid change?
Last October, a group of students signed a letter complaining about an organic chemistry professor – Maitland Jones Jr. – and his undergraduate class at New York University (NYU). According to the students, the class was too demanding, had very high expectations and the exams were too hard. They also complained about the professor’s teaching…
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Information design research at the intersection of society, technology, and science
Last month, one of the stops during my trip to Mexico was with students from the Design, Information and Communication Masters (MADIC) program at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM). The program includes three tracks – Information Design, Interaction Systems, and Communication Strategies – and fosters an integrated approach to address social and technological challenges at local…
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NUEVO LIBRO: Comprender la investigación de campo
After a year in the making, I’m pleased that the translation to Spanish of my first book “Making Sense of Field Research. A Practical Guide for Information Designers” will be available at the end of the month. Coordinated and published by the Maestría en Diseño, Información y Comunicación (MADIC) at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) in…
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Workshop: Design research for educators in Mexico
As part of the many changes that design higher education is experiencing in the last decade, there are two that speak louder and are also interconnected: adding research into the curricula and engaging in more cross-disciplinary challenges. The broader the role of design in society, the larger the need for working collaboratively and engaging in…
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Why intrinsic motivation matters
Creativity can be a lot of fun and life-changing, but it can also be extremely challenging. I believe that a creativity class can be harder than a chemistry class. While chemistry and similar subjects do require understanding the concepts, to an extent, doing assignments and putting a great amount of study hours often equals a…
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Why imagination matters
Creativity and innovation have become popular words. Just a quick search in Google shows about 663,000,000 and 3,270,000,000 results respectively. Also, many articles from domains unrelated to arts and design have described creativity as the skill to master in the XXI century. In a recent article for The New York Times, Peter Coy discusses how…
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