University of Alberta
Edmonton, Canada
Assistant Professor of Design Studies
President of Edmonton Wayfinding Society
What is the motivation to work in information design?
I’m drawn to systems and complexity. I like helping people find solutions to complex issues through research. The idea that design can save lives motivates me.
What are you working on at the moment?
Designing a participatory urban mapping and wayfinding event for Edmonton Design Week in September; researching different ways to explain the patient intake process at hospital emergency rooms; researching how people use instructions in medical/emergency situations.
What is a project you consider a great example of information design?
The London Underground Map—one early example of how to represent information spatially, rather than geographically; Isotype for children’s education publications; A Better A & E, PearsonLloyd; Legible London; Bristol Legible City; and Applied’s work internationally on wayfinding.
What is your dream project?
The design of an educational package to be given out to children in schools that taught systems thinking to school age children;
redesign of an early medical intervention instructions to prevent overdose and death; branding, exhibition design, and wayfinding in a children’s museum.