Author: Karel van der Waarde

Visualizing Complexity Science Workshop

Visualizing Complexity Science Workshop by Paul Kahn and Liuhuaying Yang (Vienna, August 28- September 1)

Paul Kahn and Liuhuaying Yang offer a 5-day workshop on Visualising Complexity Science.

The Visualizing Complexity Science Workshop brings together multiple perspectives in information design and data visualization to create complexity science visualizations. Teams will combine researchers together with data visualization designers, data journalists, and data artists engaged in advanced visualization projects.

The program is designed to be diverse, creative and inspiring, offering a mix of lectures by the hosts, invited guest speakers from the international data journalism and visualization community, group discussions, and hands-on working sessions engaging with complexity science research datasets.

Location: Complexity Science Hub, Vienna, Austria

Dates: Monday August 28 – Friday September 1, 2023

Registration deadline: May 20, 2023

More details and registration: Visualizing Complexity Science Workshop Website

Information Design Summer School: 3 days in Vienna, 22-24 May

After two years online, the Information Design Summer School is face-to-face again – for three intensive days of expert talks, discussion and practical work.

After two years online, the Information Design Summer School is face-to-face again – for three intensive days of expert talks, discussion and practical work in Vienna, just before Vision Plus XIX. There are sessions on design critiquing, visualisation, typography, language and design, iconography, and user testing.

It costs £250, and there are various discounts available. You can find out more at: The Simplification Centre

Book: ‘Information Visualisation’

New book by Maria dos Santos Lonsdale about ‘Information Visualisation’.

The publisher states: ‘In a world of information overload, this book will help you to cut through the noise and communicate information with clear, efficient, and engaging visualisations. 

This book:  

• Explains the principles behind information visualisation, including the science of visual perception and cognition
• Provides guidelines that bring research and best practice together
• Showcases a range of examples, and outlines the do’s and don’ts of different approaches
• Shows how to use research methods to design with and for your target audience. 

From an expert with years of experience researching, teaching, and doing information visualisation, learn how to make better and informed decisions around visualisation design that are appropriate for both your data and audience.’

Foreword written by Prof. Dr. Rune Pettersson.

Website: Sage Publishing. Sample pages: Preview.

Call for Papers: Special Issue of the Cartographic Journal ‘Beck at 90 Years’

Looking for contributors.

In 1933, Henry Beck’s original design for representing the London Underground was published, schematising the entire network for the first time using only horizontal, vertical and 45-degree diagonal lines and distorting topography to enhance clarity. The London Underground has been depicted using these techniques ever since and cartographers and designers worldwide have been influenced by its success. 

To mark this anniversary and Beck’s contribution, The Cartographic Journal will publish a multidisciplinary Special Issue exploring the foundations and future prospects for transport cartography in which schematisation forms an important element of design.

We welcome full contributions of up to 8,000 words (Refereed paper – substantive research – with double-blind peer review) or shorter manuscripts of up to 4,000 words (Observation paper – brief reports of preliminary findings or theoretical remarks – with editorial review) that either focus on Beck’s work and its legacy or take a wider perspective.

Website: The Cartographic Journal

Deadline: Abstracts on January 13, 2023. First submissions on April 9, 2023.

InfoDesign special issue on Health and Wellbeing

Issue 19.3 of the Revista Brasileira de Design da Informação contains 4 English articles about health and wellbeing.

The Brazilian journal InfoDesign has just published a special issue on Health and Wellbeing. Issue 19.3 of the Revista Brasileira de Design da Informação / Brazilian Journal of Information Design contains five articles in English. PDFs of these articles can be downloaded for free from the InfoDesign website.

Issue 19.3 includes the following articles:

Editorial. Sara Goldchmit, Daniel Raposo: Editorial: Information Design for Health and Wellbeing.

Article 1. Letícia Maria Muniz Lobo, Ana Carolina Garcia Ribeiro, Maria Isabelle Silveira da Silva, Nicole Kareen Conceição Mendes, Livia Flávia de Albuquerque Campos: Desenvolvimento de infográfico como alerta para a prevenção do câncer de pênis no Maranhão [Development of infographic as a warning for the prevention of penile cancer in Maranhão.]

Article 2. Grace Sampaio, Carla Spinillo: Considerações sobre o design da informação em artefatos gráficos do processo de prescrição de dietas: Um estudo do fluxo de informações em um hospital público universitário [Information design considerations in graphic artifacts of the diet prescription process: On the information flow in a public university hospital.]

Article 3. Emanuele König, Patricia Raquel Bohn, Cláudia de Souza Libânio: Barreiras informacionais e recomendações para a inclusão de pacientes em um serviço oncológico ambulatorial brasileiro. [Informational barriers and recommendations for patient inclusion in a Brazilian outpatient oncological service.]

Article 4. Laís Alpi Landim, Maria José Vicentini Jorente: Recursos gráficos para visualização de informações de saúde no contexto da Covid-19. [Graphic resources for health information visualization in the context of Covid-19.]

Job: Principal Teaching Fellow

Hong Kong Polytechnic University is looking for a Principal Teaching Fellow.

The School of Design of Hong Kong Polytechnic University is restructuring its academic programmes for 2022/23. The Principal Teaching Fellow will take up a role for the teaching and learning activities related to the new scheme-based undergraduate programme BA (Hons) in Design. This covers the areas of Interior Design, Environment Design, Advertising Design, Information Design, Media Design, Product Design, Interaction Design, Social Design and Service Design.

Consideration of applications will commence on 12 December 2022 until the position is filled. 

Website: School of Design.

New Zealand: Plain Language Bill

The New Zealand Parliament approved a ‘Plain Language Bill’.

On 19 October, the New Zealand Parliament approved a ‘Plain Language Bill’. The Bill was announced and its contents was made public. 

Section 7 of this legislation mentions a need for guidance. There will be Plain Language officers who check documents and spoken texts. The ISO-standard on Plain Language – IIID contributed to this standard – might become directly applicable.

Some comments appeared in Stuff and the British Guardian.

Job: Assistant Professor of Design

Chapman University is looking for an Assistant Professor

The Design Program, within Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, at Chapman University in Orange County, California invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Design, beginning August 2023.

Please direct inquiries to Jeanie Randazzo, Manager, Department of Art, at randazzo@chapman.edu

Application review begins December 1 and continues until the position is filled.

Website: Wilkinson College of Arts, Chapman University in Orange County, California.

Updated book series by Rune Pettersson

Prof. Dr. Rune Pettersson updates his series of 12 books on Information Design. Download these for free.

Rune Pettersson has updated his series of twelve books on Information Design. This series gives an excellent up-to-date overview of the literature.

All twelve books can be downloaded for free from:

  1. Message Design [Download link]
  2. ID theories [Download link]
  3. Text Design [Download link]
  4. Image Design [Download link]
  5. Using images [Download link]
  6. Reuse in A&D [Download link]
  7. Graphic Design [Download link]
  8. Cognition [Download link]
  9. Learning [Download link]
  10. Predecessors and Pioneers [Download link]
  11. It depends [Download link]
  12. ID-concepts [Download link]

Call for papers: SYMBOL’22: SYMBOL SOURCEBOOK@50

Call for papers for a symposium to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Henri Dreyfuss’ Symbol Sourcebook.

We will examine the 50th anniversary of industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss’ discipline defining Symbol Sourcebook, to reveal the legacy underpinning our current fascination with emojis, icons and symbols and explore new symbol applications.

We welcome abstracts for papers from the design community for The Symbol Group’s inaugural online symposium.


DAY ONE examines the importance of symbols using Dreyfuss’ book as a starting point – considering themes of internationalism, data-visualisation, universal language, symbol design history and the influence of technology.

DAY TWO focuses on symbols in contemporary practice including social media (emojis and stickers), inclusivity, sustainability and diversity, critical applications (emergencies/disasters), and symbol language experiments.

Keynote speakers: Prof Keith Bresnahan, Prof Elizabeth Guffrey, Steven Heller, Nigel Holmes, Prof Hisayasu Ihara, Jennifer Lee, Ellen Lupton and Karel van der Waarde

Deadline for abstracts: 30 July 2022

Book: Human Interface and the Management of Information: Visual and Information Design

Conference proceedings of the 2022 HCI virtual conference (June 16-July 1, 2022).

Sakae Yamamoto and Hirohiko Mori edited these conference proceedings of the virtual HCI International Conference 2022. It contains 39 articles.

Part 1 focuses on human-centered design approaches, information design and quality, visual design, visualization and big data, and information, cognition and learning.

Website: Springer

Job: Assistant Professor, Design and Social Justice

Mount Royal University in Calgary (Canada) is looking for an Assistant Professor.

The Department of Information Design, Faculty of Business and Communication Studies at Mount Royal University is looking for a colleague passionate about design education that fosters inclusion, advances equity, and decenters whiteness.

The successful candidate will demonstrate a primary commitment to undergraduate teaching and an ongoing research program. The focus will be on teaching courses in the Information Design program and developing senior-level courses in their area of expertise. 

Website: Faculty of Business and Communication Studies, Mount Royal University

New book: Visualizing Complexity

A guide to transform complex or unstructured numbers and texts into creative and playful designs.

Description from the publisher: ‘How can you turn dry statistics into attractive and informative graphs? How can you present complex data sets in an easily understandable way? How can you create narrative diagrams from unstructured data? This handbook of information design answers these questions. Nicole Lachenmeier and Darjan Hil condense their extensive professional experience into an illustrated guide that offers a modular design system comprised of 80 elements. Their systematic design methodology makes it possible for anyone to visualize complex data attractively and using different perspectives. At the intersection of design, journalism, communication and data science, Visualizing Complexity opens up new ways of working with abstract data and invites readers to try their hands at information design.’

Website: www.superdot.studio