IIID Conversation: Design for Emergency Management, 18 January 2024, 17:00 UTC

This time we delve into the emerging discipline of Design for Emergency Management, where the application of design takes on a comprehensive role in preventing and addressing disasters.

This time we delve into the emerging discipline of Design for Emergency Management, where the application of design takes on a comprehensive role in preventing and addressing disasters.

This talk will discuss the distinctions between this emerging discipline and traditional design, and showcase how design methods bring innovative evidence-based perspectives to the complex challenges presented by natural hazards such as earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires. This role extends far beyond aesthetics, and the discussion will underscore the imperative for collaborative endeavors that encompass a variety of stakeholders and ensure inclusive representation.

Saskia and Claudine together with Tingyi S. Lin, Klaus Kremer, Rodrigo Ramírez created the book ‘Design for Emergency Management’ that highlights the design research for change.

From the publisher: ‘This book highlights the urgency of ensuring that a wide range of stakeholders and a diverse representation of the public comes together to work towards preventing disasters. It contributes methods to actively engage communities in managing and minimizing disaster risk such as earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding and (wild) fires.’

Editors: Saskia van Manen, Claudine Jaenichen, Tingyi S. Lin, Klaus Kremer, Rodrigo Ramírez
Publisher: Routledge
Book site

Booking for the IIID Conversation: Eventbrite

Saskia van Manen is co-founder of Design for Emergency Management. She is also a visiting research fellow at the Open University (UK). Saskia has always been fascinated by the power of nature, and volcanoes in particular. As disasters only occur at the interface between nature and society, she has increasingly worked across discipline boundaries. Her interest is in facilitating sustainable and inclusive community-led action on disaster risk reduction, resilience strengthening and climate adaptation through Earth-centered and evidence-based design. She holds a PhD in Volcanology, an MA in Product Design and Innovation and an M.Sci. in Geophysics.

Claudine Jaenichen
Claudine Jaenichen

Claudine Jaenichen specializes in information design, focusing on the interplay between design, cognition, and situational design for cognitively demanding events. She advocates for inclusivity in design, particularly in evacuation information and public information projects, using participatory design and benchmarking to measure success and audience communication. Claudine is actively involved in international design communities, serving on the Executive Board of Directors for the Design Network for Emergency Management and as Vice President of the International Institute of Information Design (IIID). Her work spans various fields including humanities, government, social sciences, and sciences, reflecting her commitment to interdisciplinary engagement and design advocacy.

IIID Conversation with Sheila Pontis, 7 December 2023, 16:00 UTC

Sheila Pontis will introduce and talk about her new book.

Join us for the next in our series of IIID Conversations. Sheila Pontis will discuss her new book, Information Design Unbound. It’s an important new resource about the theory and practice of information design.

As the complexity of problems facing people, organizations, and the planet grows, the role of information design is more important than ever. Infographics, data visualizations, and other well-known artifacts are part of a broader suite of information design interventions that help promote clarity and understanding.

For designers to realize the full potential of information design in the face of new and ambiguous challenges, they need to build on traditional practices as well as integrate emerging approaches.

Sheila saysAs the complexity of problems facing people, organizations, and the planet grows, the role of information design is more important than ever. Infographics, data visualizations, and other well-known artifacts are part of a broader suite of information design interventions that help promote clarity and understanding.’

Information Design Unbound: Key Concepts and Skills for Making Sense in a Changing World’ provides a comprehensive introduction to the field. The emphasis is on developing essential strategic thinking and visual problem-solving capabilities. It is written and designed with students’ needs in mind. This book brings information design fundamentals to life. It includes exercises to allow students to put lessons directly into practice. Many case studies demonstrate how information designers think and work, and generous illustrations clarify concepts in a visually engaging way.

Authors: Sheila Pontis & Michael Babwahsingh
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2023.

[Website about the book].

Booking for the IIID Conversation: Eventbrite

Sheila Pontis is an information designer, researcher, educator, and partner at Sense Information Design. With more than 20 years in higher education, her courses and research blend information design, cognitive science, and field research with creative thinking to help people reconnect with their imagination, envision new realities, and feel empowered to lead change — in their own lives and in society. .

Her research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and presented at multiple conferences. She is author of Making Sense of Field Research: A Practical Guide for Information Designers (Routledge, 2018) and coauthor of Communicating Knowledge Visually: Will Burtin’s Scientific Approach to Information Design with R. Roger Remington (RIT Press, 2021). Sheila has a degree in Graphic Design from the University of Buenos Aires, Postgraduate and MPhil degrees from the University of Barcelona, and a PhD from the University of the Arts London.

New book: ‘Design for Emergency Management’

A new book about the critical role and relationship between design and emergencies.

From the publisher: ‘This book highlights the urgency of ensuring that a wide range of stakeholders and a diverse representation of the public comes together to work towards preventing disasters. It contributes methods to actively engage communities in managing and minimizing disaster risk such as earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding and (wild) fires.’

Editors: Saskia van Manen, Claudine Jaenichen, Tingyi S. Lin, Klaus Kremer, Rodrigo Ramírez.

Published by: Routledge.

Shi Ji: Design Education. Part 1

She Ji, the journal for Design, Economics and Innovation, has published its issue 6/1, dedicated to design education and guest-edited by Guillermina Noël.

Cover page of Shi Ji 6.1

She Ji, the journal for Design, Economics and Innovation, has published its issue 6/1, dedicated to design education and guest-edited by Guillermina Noël.

The journal is open source, you can download the whole issue or select articles of your choice under this link:

Shi Ji: Design Education. Part 1

Authors are:

  • Ken Friedman Tongji University, Shanghai;
  • Guillermina Noël University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Lucerne, Switzerland;
  • Michael Meyer and Donald Norman, University of California at San Diego, USA;
  • Peter Jan Stappers et al, Deft Technological University, Netherlands;
  • Gjoko Muratovski, Ullman School of Design, University of Cincinnati, USA;
  • Johan Redström, Umea Institute of Design, Sweden;
  • Gunnar Swanson, California State University, USA;
  • Jorge Frascara, Formerly University of Alberta, Canada, and now University of Applied Design and Art, Lucerne, Switzerland. He interviews Richard Buchanan, Meredith Davis, Ken Friedman, Willard McCarty, Ezio Manzini, Donald Norman, Sharon Poggenpohl, and Saskia Sassen.

Comment on Corona data quality

Comment by Andreas Schneider, Institute for Information Design Japan, on the quality of data provided by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at John Hopkins University, basis for the “Corona Navigator” featured in a previous post.

Comment by Andreas Schneider, Institute for Information Design Japan, on the quality of data provided by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at John Hopkins University, basis for the “Corona Navigator” featured in a previous post.

As these data are consumed more and more by non-experts without understanding inherent limitations, significant misinterpretations may happen.

The full comment is available on the IIDj website.

Changes to IIIDaward 2020

Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. Under the given circumstances we have made some changes and adaptations.

Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. Under the given circumstances we have made some changes and adaptations.

The jury meeting is postponed to May 15/16, will be held face-2-face or online, depending on current developments.

  • The category “emergency” is dedicated to covid-related entries for only 30,- euro each.
  • Until April-15, there is a 2+2=2 promotion.
  • The final deadline for submissions is April-30.
  • Awarded projects will be announced on May-19.
  • The IIIDaward-book will be thicker than ever.
  • The IIIDaward exhibition tour will be expanded to as many as possible places.

Let us show the world the impact of excellent information design.  If you have any further suggestions, ideas, please contact us.

The more, the better: our ambition is to have as many cases as possible giving evidence of the importance and relevance of information design. 
So please submit two entries and get two more for free.
Promotion ends on Wed. -15th of April.

For details and submissions, please visit the IIIDaward website.

Corona Virus Navigator – update 2020-03-23

Although we are constantly updating and expanding our visualizations around the developments of the spread of the Corona virus, we are painfully aware of the underlying limitations and the risks of statistical communication.

Although we are constantly updating and expanding our visualizations around the developments of the spread of the Corona virus, we are painfully aware of the underlying limitations and the risks of statistical communication. Numbers, exuding a certain authority, may draw attention in ways that are not appropriate to the issues they claim to represent.

While it is extremely important to put quantitative information in context, we lack the detail to do so in a meaningful way: the number of tests performed, population, demographic profiles and many others.

We have added a new view, charts, which should help to better understand the dynamics of development at each location. These diagrams are scaled to facilitate comparative reading – they do not allow quantitative comparisons in any way.

Corona navigator charts, comparing development is various countries.
We have added a new view, Charts, which should help to better understand the dynamics of development at each location. These diagrams are scaled to facilitate comparative reading – they do not allow quantitative comparisons in any way. https://api.iidj.net/cv/charts
3D visualization of the corona timeline with bars expanding from points on the globe.
The performance of 3-D Views has been improved: https://api.iidj.net/cv, https://api.iidj.net/timeline

Data collected and managed by Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at John Hopkins University – Great Work! https://url.iidj.net/arcgis_75MX

Andreas Schneider
Institute of Information Design Japan iidj
2020-03-23.

COVID-19: numbers in context

Andreas Schneider from IIDj, Institute for Information Design Japan sent this article.

Corona virus navigator: IIDj keeps a live 3-D visualization of the virus’ geographic appearance within the limitations set by insufficient data, based on the LiveTracker of the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at John Hopkins University, US

Following the development of presentations around the coronavirus evolution we feel obliged to raise our concerns:

  • Numbers are only meaningful if they refer to a known metric – the sum of the identified infections must be reported together with the total number of persons testedpresentations have to consider and communicate three phases: IDENTIFICATION, RECOVERY, FATALITIES.
  • Data should be provided by SITES, identifiable significant agglomerations / communities – and not by arbitrary political entities – such as province or country.
  • The number of cases cannot be visualized as blobs of varying size on 2-dimensional maps, giving the impression of a geographical spread when the underlying data is the total within an arbitrary political boundary – such as province or country.
  • Color schemes should enable understanding rather than cause fear.
  • AUTHORSHIP/SOURCE of data/information used must be clearly stated, including contact details for questions and feedback.

We keep updating the live 3-D visualization of the virus’ geographic appearance within the limitations set by insufficient data, based on the LiveTracker of the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at John Hopkins University, USA.
https://api.iidj.net/cv/
https://api.iidj.net/cv/timeline

We hope that the respective authorities will make efforts to provide appropriate data in a consistent format. This is necessary for responsible decision-making at personal and political levels that can count on the understanding of all concerned.


Data collected and managed by Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at John Hopkins University. https://url.iidj.net/arcgis_75MX

Context, worldwide:
According to WHO, 15 deaths every minute = 8MIO per year through AIR POLLUTION https://url.iidj.net/who_ghZS
According to WHO, 15+ deaths every minute = 8MIO+ per year through TOBACCO USE https://url.iidj.net/who_7745
According to WHO, 3 deaths every minute = 1.6MIO per year directly caused by DIABETES (2016) https://url.iidj.net/who_HL21