The International Institute for Information Design (IIID) is a global network for people who work to make information clearer – for everyday life, business, education and science. It combines graphic design, user experience, plain language, and design research.
- Summer School preview, 14 March 14:00 UTC
Thinking of coming to the Information Design Summer School this May? To help you decide, join our free taster session on 14 March at 1400 (UTC time zone).
The preview session will include a short introduction to the summer school programme, and a demonstration exercise – we will critique some real life examples of good and bad design, to show how we use design theory and design patterns to diagnose problems and find solutions. The tutors will all be there to introduce themselves and answer your questions. You will be able to feel the atmosphere of the summer school and understand the approach we take.
The Information Design Summer School will be held face-to-face, 22-24 May in Vienna. It’s organised by the Simplification Centre in partnership with IIID. You can find out more at www.simplificationcentre.org.uk/summer-school
- IIID Conversation with Karel van der Waarde, 6 April 2023, 15:00 UTC
Medicines information: Are we really enabling patients to take medicines?
Taking medicines is a stressful activity. Opening a cardboard box, reading a leaflet, handling tiny pills, checking the dosage and the time, and considering potential side-effects require the capacities of a strong, astute, and healthy adult. Several of these activities are fairly difficult, especially when our dexterity, eye-sight, and mental flexibility decreases.
Karel van der Waarde will show examples of medical information design in context. He will question their use and provide reasons from both industry and regulations why these situations change so slowly.
Karel van der Waarde studied graphic design in the Netherlands (The Design Academy, Eindhoven), and the UK (De Montfort University (Leicester), and Reading University).
He started in 1995 a design- research consultancy in Belgium. The company develops and tests patient information leaflets, instructions, forms, and protocols in both digital and analogue formats. Most of the projects are related to information about medicines for patients, doctors and pharmacists. (www.graphicdesign-research.com)
In 2023 he teaches at BA, MA, and PhD level at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Switzerland), and University of Hasselt (Belgium).
He is a board member of International Institute for Information Design (IIID, Vienna, Austria) and the International Plain Language Federation (IPLF), and editorial board member of Information Design Journal, Hyphen, She Ji, and Visible Language. - IIID Visionplus conference Vienna, 25-26 May 2023
Visionplus is back, even more importantly, it’s back in Vienna, Austria 🙂
The 19th Visionplus conference focuses on healthcare, prevention, and well-being:
Information Design for Healthcare
Finding a way through healthcare systems, healthcare buildings, and healthcare finances is often a challenge, even when we’re healthy and wealthy. Information is crucial to enable people to act appropriately.
The focus of the conference is on questions like:
- How do information design principles relate to patients and their health?
- Could information design be beneficial for the outcomes of treatments, care, and well-being?
- Do patients really notice and appreciate information design?
- What kinds of evidence and reasoning is required to show the relevance of information design in health contexts?
- Can information design bridge the communication gap between patients and care-professionals?
- Could information design really alleviate some of the pressures on healthcare systems?
- How to visualise information about risks and benefits?
Contributions
We welcome presentations on topics such as signage, instructions, forms, maps, diagrams, symbols, in both digital and analogue situations. These could be based on research, education, professional practice as well as and historical perspectives.
The conference language is English.
Presentation format: 20 minutes plus 10 minutes discussion
Abstracts should contain between 200 and 400 words, a full paper submission is not required.
By submitting your abstract, you guarantee that you have the right to present and submit the content.Submission deadline is February 28th, 2023
Please submit all contributions to the conference platform.Contributions will be reviewed anonymously by at least four experts. The core review team are:
- Prof. Jorge Frascara
- Prof. Claudine Jaenichen
- Prof. Dr. Guillermina Noel
- Prof. Dr. Clive Richards
- Prof. Dr. Rob Waller
- Prof. Dr. Karel van der Waarde
Submissions will be reviewed until March 18th at the latest.
Author(s) of the accepted contribution must register for the conference by March 31st, 2023, they benefit from a 50% discount on the conference fee.
Please direct any questions to: research.education@iiid.net
Details on registration, venue, etc. will be published shortly.
- IIID Conversation with Stefania Passera, 2 March 2023, 15:00 UTC
Legal Information Design: Towards user-friendly contracts
“I have read and understood the terms and conditions” is the biggest lie on the internet – no one reads, and definitely no one understands (except the lawyers).
When most of us hear “contracts”, we think of impenetrable walls of legalese envisioned to protect a party at the expense of the other. But there’s another way. Through information design, contracts can be transformed into tools that work better for business, for people, and ultimately for society.
Stefania Passera, a pioneer of contract design, will show examples of her work and discuss the impact of this new, multidisciplinary approach to contracts. Legal information design is a fast-growing marketplace for information design skills and this talk will introduce IIID members to one of its leading figures.
Stefania, founder of Passera Design, is an information designer specialized in contract design and simplification based in Helsinki, Finland. With 10+ years of experience in the field, she is considered a true legal design pioneer. She collaborates with World Commerce & Contracting as Contract Designer in Residence and as curator of the Contract Design Pattern Library.
She has served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Vaasa, Department of Business Law (Finland), and earned her doctoral degree from Aalto University (Espoo, Finland). Her research has been published internationally, and she is an in-demand speaker and lecturer on contract and legal design. Her impact as a legal design pioneer has been recognized with a European Women of Legal Tech 2020 award and a WorldCC Fellowship.
- IIIDaward 2023
The IIIDawards are a showroom for professional information design with international exposure in many different categories of information design applications. In addition to receiving an award, all submissions are presented online. The best of each category are included in the IIIDaward book and will go on tour as part of the exhibition.
Submissions until 25 March 2023
- Data And Design #23 • Visualizing Knowledge
Details
What do we know about an issue? What really is knowledge compared to the actual practice? Shedroff’s theory states that data leads to information, information leads to knowledge, and knowledge leads to wisdom of an individual. What role can visualization play in this? How can visualizations lead to new knowledge? In what ways can we create knowledge?
In our next event we want to explore the question whether visualizing knowledge could be the key to faster understanding, inclusion and a new form of learning and discussion. Let’s visualize the given and the imagined to create knowledge for the future.
The next event will be in English only on YouTubeLive. You will be able to ask questions via Slido.
IMPORTANT: Please RSVP for the event, so that we can send you the online link and additional information.And here are the speakers:
Barbara Vissirini, a Berlin based communication designer, will talk about her latest award winning project – Dieses kleine Buch ist für dich: A visual grammar for German as a Foreign Language. She will share with us the basics behind her design research and the developed visual system. We are curious to see if this book could be a first step into learning new languages with fun and visual logic.
Valentina D’Efilippo, a London-based designer, illustrator and creative director. Whose work has been part of the permanent collection of Austria’s largest anthropological museum, the Weltmuseum Wien, and her book “The Infographic History of the World” has been translated into nine languages. Valentina will talk about her latest projects and her experiences with illustrating history and human development through data visualization and infographic storytelling.
Dario Rodighiero, is an Assistant Professor of Sciences and Technology Studies at the University of Groningen, a principal of metaLAB (at) Harvard, and a member of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. As an interdisciplinary researcher and designer, Dario will take us to the intersection of knowledge design, critical data, and digital humanities, focusing on the creative possibilities of visualizations and the digital mapping of knowledge.
Darjan Hil from Superdot will host the next On Data And Design online session live on Youtube.Further Links:
Youtube at ► https://www.youtube.com/@OnDataAndDesign/videos
Tweet at ► https://twitter.com/onDataAndDesign
Eventbrite Group ► https://ondataanddesign.eventbrite.ch
Meetup Group ► https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/ondataanddesign-Switzerland/
Linkedin ► https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/71529252
Superdot ► https://www.superdot.studio/
Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/ondataanddesign/ - VK23 – Visualizing Knowledge conference, 16 June 2023 in Aalto, Finland
Visualizing Uncertainty: Call for speakers and student showcase now open
JOIN THE SHOWCASE!
Student Projects of Information Design and Data VisualizationVisualizing Knowledge is seeking for engaging and compelling student projects to be part of the showcase exhibited online and on the conference day, 16th June 2023, at Aalto University. This year’s theme is Visualizing Uncertainty. How can we point out new perspectives and approaches that can bring a hopeful and optimistic future which hasn’t been set yet? How do we visualize the complexity of the world we’re living in?
Entries can be design and data work in a variety of formats – digital, web, interactive art, installation and print etc.
Selected entrants will have the opportunity to attend the conference for free.
- 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 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
- Catch the early bird for IIIDaward entries 2023
The IIIDawards are a showroom for professional information design with international exposure in many different categories of information design applications. In addition to receiving an award, all submissions are presented online. The best of each category are included in the IIIDaward book and will go on tour as part of the exhibition.
Early bird submissions until 31 January 2023
- IIID Conversation with Maxwell Roberts, 2 February 2023, 15:00 UTC
Why Henry Beck’s 1933 London tube map design was such a resounding success
It’s exactly 90 years since the launch of Henry Beck’s 1933 London Underground network diagram, which has become an iconic example of information design . We’re marking this with a talk by Maxwell Roberts who is the pre-eminent expert on the diagram and author of several books on it.
Max says: “It was a remarkable work of elegant compromise, effortlessly balancing conflicting priorities and presenting passengers with a design that simplified reality in a useful way. In this talk I will highlight these priorities and consider recent findings in usability testing that show the importance of attending to them.”
Maxwell Roberts lectures in psychology at the University of Essex, UK, with BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Nottingham. His research interests have included reasoning and intelligence, but now focus on information design and, in particular, schematic maps, creating challenging designs and testing their usability and aesthetics. He has authored four books and several academic papers on this topic and co-chairs the Schematic Mapping Workshop. His personal web page is www.tubemapcentral.com.
- Diana Frank
Germany
- Rupesh Vyas
Finland
- Book: ‘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.Â
This book:Â Â
• 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.Â
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.
- IIID Conversation with Rodrigo RamÃrez (Chile), 12 January 2023, 14:00 UTC
Visual Tools: Information design as a way to manage crises and emergencies.
Rodrigo RamÃrez specialises in information design for emergencies, including the immediate needs in an emergency as well as the communication and management of risk. He will discuss the Guemil icons project, with testing through participatory workshops in communities.
Rodrigo is Associate Professor at the School of Design, UC Chile (Diseño UC). He is also a researcher at the Chilean National Research Center for Integrated Disaster Management, CIGIDEN. He was design leader for the Guemil Icons project, an open source set of symbols for crises and emergencies (guemil.info). Rodrigo has an MA Information Design from Reading University, UK. His interests are typography and information design, crossing both practice and research. He has collaborated in information and type design research and designed for brands, public organizations, and publications.
- Call for Papers: Special Issue of the Cartographic Journal ‘Beck at 90 Years’
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.Â
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
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. LetÃcia 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. LaÃs 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.]
- Veronika Egger
is-design
Vienna, AustriaCo-founder and Director, Design for All in Austria
IIID Vice President, Finance & AdministrationWhat is the motivation to work in information design?
I feels good to create something that improves someone’s experience or understanding.
What are you working on at the moment?
Wayshowing, orientation, medical information.
What is a project you consider a great example of information design?
Paris public transport, the new bus stops;
Telebanking in India with voice interaction only;
(Wayshowing in Hofburg Imperial Palace Vienna and Austrian Parliament); my latest project 🙂What is your dream project?
A truly inclusive public space.
- Rodrigo Ramirez
Chile
- Alex Tyers
Australia
- Juuso Koponen
Koponen + Hildén
Helsinki, FinlandCo-founder of Koponen+Hildén
Teacher at Aalto University, Lahti Design InstituteWhat is the motivation to work in information design?
I believe that good decisions require understanding the facts. Information design is about making the facts understandable. Therefore, information design facilitates good decisions, whether it be in government, business, or people’s daily lives.
What are you working on at the moment?
I run a small information design studio with my business partner Jonatan Hildén. We mostly create infographics and data visualizations for public sector clients and media, and train PR professionals, researchers and other experts on the basics of creating their own visualizations. We also teach information design at Aalto University.
What is a project you consider a great example of information design?
I’m a big fan of The New York Times’ graphics desk. For example, the online article “Tracking Harvey’s Destructive Path Trough Texas and Louisiana” uses data visualizations to paint a detailed picture of the havoc created by hurricane Harvey after making landfall: www.nytimes.com
What is your dream project?
My business/creative partner Jonatan Hildén and I are starting work that very well might be the dream project. With the help of a grant from Kone Foundation we are creating 40 data maps and cartograms of Finland on a wide variety of topics. The project combines journalism, data collection, wrangling and analysis, map design, and interaction design, making it a very interesting and rewarding project, and hopefully one that will have an impact on the Finnish society.
- Gordon Akwera
User Centered Design
New York, USAConsultant
What is the motivation to work in information design?
It’s a special capability that allows for solving complex problems, with impactful and real results.
What are you working on at the moment?
Designing a platform that monitors unauthorized trading for credit, commodities, prime and FX.
What is a project you consider a great example of information design?
Nate Silver’s interactive sections on fivethirtyeight.com
What is your dream project?
Re-designing an air traffic control platform.
- Yosune Chamizo Alberro
Mexico City, Mexico
Building human & interdisciplinary teams in the field of information design, technology, maps and data.
What is your motivation to work in information design?
For more than 10 years I dedicated my work to editorial design and that was a job I enjoyed a lot. However, it was not until I completed my master’s degree with a project on Central American migrants who crossed Mexico, that I realized that information design applied to social affairs was my real passion (sort, rank, analyze, and transform data into information to generate knowledge to better understand the world). Being part of projects that can truly have a social impact: that is my motivation.
What are you working on at the moment?
In 2023 I am working for the Mexican government at the National Council of Science and Technology where I am the Head of Data Analysis and Geographic Information Systems within the Repositories, Research and Foresight Coordination. In this role, I lead interdisciplinary open science projects that use information design, data analysis, Geographical Information Systems and technology on issues such as health, food sovereignty, education, violence, climate change, polluting processes, culture, among others.
What is a project you consider a great example of information design?
In the article “Logic and Visual Information” by Hammer, E. M., with a diagram similar to the one below, the author expresses the relative distances between the Earth, Moon, and Mars:
Earth – Moon –————- Mars
It seems trivial and very simple, however it is a great example of how this type of representations are necessary in our information consumption. Sometimes with 3 words and two lines we can explain complex processes and that allow us to better understand our world.What is your dream project?
After several years working in different contexts I think the process is as important as the project. That’s why I want to be part of healthy teams that bring together different profiles and expertises to create impactful projects regardless of whether they are very local or on a large scale. Building ethically, collectively, with gender perspective, and caring for others and our environment.
- Claudine Jaenichen
Professor of Design, Chapman University,
California, USAExecutive Board of Directors, Design Network for Emergency Management
IIID Executive BoardWhat is the motivation to work in information design?
Advocacy trough based evidence-based practice and principles.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am working with Design Network for Emergency Management creating tsunami and wildfire evacuation communication guidelines for emergency management for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Management.
What is a project you consider a great example of information design?
A Better A&E led by PearsonLloyd, Medicine for People initiative led by David Sless and the Communication Research Institute, NYC Live Subway Map by Gary Hustwit/Work & Co., and Simple Action reports led by Rob Waller and the Simplification Centre.
What is your dream project?
To develop a federal committee dedicated to ensuring that evidence-design practices and principles are leveraged into policy and standards for public communication for emergency preparedness and response.
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- Mikhaila Aldaba
Thinking Machines Data Science
Quezon City, PhilippinesConsultant
What is the motivation to work in information design?
Data is power and the ability to visually communicate it for analytical/decision making/usability/problem solving purposes and mor is crucial in the coming years since we are getting more and more of it.
What are you working on at the moment?
Dashboards on PowerBI and Tableau, Interactive Data Visualizations on D3.
What is a project you consider a great example of information design?
Moritz Stefaner’s entire body of work and Nick Felton’s report.
What is your dream project?
Something related to doing UX work for AI/ML, an Interactive Data Installation, or anything film/data related.