Awakening Engagement through Information Design Education

Angela Norwood, Assistant Professor
Department of Design, York University, Toronto, Canada

This paper will present selected projects from an introductory course in information design in which students engaged in research projects inspired by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The eight MDGs represent broad categories of challenges facing the developing world. Each student identified a topic from the list of Goals and explored it through experimentation with explanatory/instructional diagrams, statistical charts and mapping. The project culminated in the design of a poster presenting various facets of the research topic. The students were guided by the question, “What are the roles for graphic designers in addressing the MDGs?” They came to understand that the presentation of information was not neutral, that every visual decision had connotations associated with it. This discovery forced students to examine their value systems and consider the roles in society that they envisioned for themselves as designers.

In a recent posting on DesignObserver, John Thackara writes, “. . . designing a poster about an issue, or launching a media campaign about it, is not the same as helping real people, in real places, change a material aspect of their everyday reality.” In my information design course, students do not operate under the illusion that their posters will bring significant change, but are awakened to expanded ideas about the potential of graphic communication and choices available to them for their careers.

Reference:
John Thackara: We Are All Emerging Economies Now
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/entry.html?id=38773#more