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Revision as of 06:37, 6 September 2007

Introduction to Information Design: Layering

The world is a layered space and it is important to be able to see things in layers and not what is on the surface. Information design requires several basic tools and the capability to apply them. This course deals with the premise that information is layered and it is important to be able to perceive and apply layering in information design.

The goal of this course is to enable you to be comfortable, informed, systematic, and smart when confronted with a design problem, to identify and articulate potential design problems, and to implement design solutions while taking into account diverse perspectives and priorities.

In this course you will encounter a number of different concepts that can help inform your perspective on layering and information design. In addition, we will implement a number of tools that will increase your flexibility when dealing with information and design.

Logistics

Instructor: Gabriel Harp

Layering meets during the 9th week for core skills (16 Sept - 07 to 22 Sept -07) Tue Wed - half days Thu Fri Sat - full days

Location: TBA

Website: http://editthis.info/layering/

Course Texts

Tufte, E. R. (1986). Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Graphics Press.

Tufte, E. R. (1990). Envisioning Information. Graphics Press.

Tufte, E. R. (1997). Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Graphics Press.

Tufte, E. R. (2006). Beautiful Evidence. Graphics Press.

Mathur, Anuradha, and Dilip da Cunha. (2006). Deccan Traverses: The Making of Banglalore's Terrain. Rupa.

Grading

Your grade will be based on; 50% Design problems 15% Participation in class 15% Journal 20% Reports (2)

demonstrate critical thinking show creativity and initiative describe and apply principles

Course Schedule

Tuesday

Categories and Naming

What do we need and want to know about each other? illustrator

Conceptual layering>interdisciplinary approaches Let's identify different perspectives on layering

-dialectics -montage >>name disciplines >>identify various

Skills: wiki editing; research

Due: wednesday

Wednesday

approaches to layering abundance and distribution

smell: economy and avilability taste: ingredients, tools, and processes

Considerations: In what amounts? In what order? In what relationship? How will it be distributed? How will it be documented?

skills: ?

Thursday

landscape layering cities and scales

present tufte chapters as designed page with new examples

sound

Friday

social layering

cycles

contradictions

indesign

Saturday

First Steps

The username and password for the administrative account is admin, admin.

1. Important: Log in as admin and go to Preferences to change your password!
2. Write down your password.
3. On this page: image_logo_url put just the url for the logo that you want in the upper left corner of your wiki.

Other optional things to do

• Control the rights of anonymous and logged in users through the Control Panel (which can be found in the toolbox on the left side of this page).
• Add the url for your wiki to the Categorized wiki list. Simply edit that page and put your wiki under the appropriate category.
• To increase the amount of space you have for uploads, add links to http://editthis.info from external sites, and go to the Link Quota Page to increase your uploads quota.
• Edit MediaWiki:Sidebar to change the navigation menu
• Add this wiki to some external wiki indexes:

1. Wikipedia list of wikis
2. WikiIndex
   

• If you are feeling adventurous and know a little about web design you can edit the javascript and css to the Header to change the look of your wiki.
  • You must log as admin to do this
  • Whatever you enter in this page will be added to the html in the header after the standard style sheet, so you can override styles.
• Read the User's Guide for other usage and configuration help.
• Add your wiki to the map of wikis
• Add a message to the Feedback Page if you see anything that could be improved.