Information Design & Data Visualization

Catalog description

Edward Tufte introduced quantitative design to a larger audience in the 1980s and 1990s. His perspective was so fresh and his examples so distinct that for a while, it seemed that he had invented information design. As it turns out, he is one analyst in a list of historically rich and diverse authors to deal with the subject. Information design is the idea that symbols can contain valuable information that is often time- and context-sensitive. We will study various issues of information design. Course introduction Information Design is the design discipline that deals with the gathering, analysis, and visualization of data in order to communicate messages in a clear, understandable, and effortless way. In this course, we will develop projects that go beyond pure aesthetics (in some cases, in fact, they may be antithetical to design) yet have more substance. Research will be an essential part of the problem-solving process. Case studies may include voting ballots and boarding passes, drug labeling, assembly instruction manuals, maps and way-finding, electronic medical records, aircraft cockpit displays, and visualizations of complex legal, ecological, and financial issues. Prerequisite Course(s): Prerequisite; ARTG 605, Corequisite: ARTG 610