Future Students - Courses

Applied Information Design

Unit Code: HDCD612

Duration	Contact Hours	Campus	Prerequisite	Corequisite
1 Term	36 hours per Term	Prahran	Nil	Nil

Credit Points: 12.5 Credit Points

Related Course/s:

A unit of study in the Masters of Design (Communication Design) (DMCD30) program.

Aims & Objectives:

To understand the role of communication design in the transmission of information from user to sender.
To explore Information Design through reading, research, and application through practice.
To apply advanced design skills and graphic techniques to a complex project.
To enable participants to achieve advanced solutions in visual communication through planned, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of information.
To consider different processes of transmission in operation when working across different medias of expression.
To undertake student centred learning and develop skills in project management.

Teaching Methods:

This is a lecture and discussion based unit with guest speakers where appropriate, group discussion of readings and research, and constructive critique of work in progress. Participants are expected to attend all seminars and present to the group.

Assessment:

100% project work.

NOTE: Percentage weightings are indicative. See Unit briefs for full assessment details.

Project briefs clearly define submission requirements and due dates but participants are responsible for actively participating in this process to develop a clear understanding of assessment requirements. Formative feedback is given throughout the semester to allow participatns to develop their work for final submission. Assessment occurs at the end of the semester.

Content:

This unit of study focuses on information and interface design, and typography. Participants are challenged to see information and its design from the perspective of the user. They explore the designer's responsibility to make information more deeply usable and meaningful, lifting it beyond the merely legible and functional. The unit incorporates a range of research and debate where the Communication Design is understood as the interface between the information and the user/reader.

Participants work individually and in groups, developing concepts through lateral thinking and applied design methodologies. Knowledge of established and emerging information design methodologies is demonstrated as part of the design process. User-centred solutions will be paramount. There will be three assessment exercises covering diverse aspects of information design.

Reading Materials:

Garrett, JJ, The Elements of User Experience, AIGA New Riders New York, New York, 2003.
Jacobson, R (ed.), Information Design, Cambridge MIT Press, Cambridge, 1999.

Kinross, R, 'The Rhetoric of Neutrality', in Margolin, V (ed.), Design Discourse, University of Chicago Press 1999.

Tyler, AC, 'Shaping Belief: The Role of Audience in Visual Communication,' in Margolin, V & Buchanan, R (eds), The Idea of Design: A Design Issues Reader, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1996.