JAMcArthur
Information Design
Design Thinking, with Michael Maness
Social media allows people to share their stories. For example, Twitter users are 4x more likely to share information on any social site than non-Twitter users. The platform enables distribution. Big media finds it, filters it, and curates it.
Michael Manness, Vice President for Journalism and Media Initiatives at Knight Foundation, suggests that design thinking will make these social platforms more robust and human centered.
Good design adds credibility to online activity. Infographics are 30 times more likely to be shared than traditional text. Multimedia components of press releases create longer sustained engagement than text-only versions. Data visualization connects text and visual representation.
Given these trends, the implementation of design thinking can help us address issues of humanity:
- Design thinking requires that designers pay attention to humans. For example, we can often find unmet needs and compensating behaviors that can inspire design.
- Design thinking allows designers to uncover needs and real issues. Even though design can hide flaws, the design process exposes them.
- Human-centered innovation requires us to inform, inspire, iterate, and innovate (via Change By Design). By thinking about our work as a design, we can remove the stigma of “sacred cows” and legacy infrastructure. Everything can be assessed together.
On the Road with Moveable Type
Few would have chosen to build a new studio in the shell of a 1982 Chevy Step Van. Kyle Durrie did, so she could take her press on the road. Eight months into her nation-wide tour, she arrived in Greenville, South Carolina where I met her at a demonstration at the Greenville Library.
Her truck welcomes visitors to ink a page with one of her two presses. On tap for today: a souvenir of the event reading “Greenville Type Truck, 2.16.12.”
When I arrived with my daughter, we rolled the red ink onto the letterblocks. After carefully positioning the paper and locking it into place, we pulled the press across coating the page with this image:
Moveable type gained widespread popularity starting in 1435 AD with the invention of the Gutenburg printing press. The moveable type press created what we now refer to as “mass communication” – the ability to reproduce and send the same information to many people.
Moveable type has now been relegated to the artist community as computer and personal printing technology has diminshed the need for a letter press. But, moveable type presses have a lot to teach us about why desktop publishing (on Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign or other programs) is set up the way that it is. In fact, using a letter press should be a required lesson for all students learning about graphic and layout design.
Three things we might learn about Microsoft Word from moveable type:
- Font Size: Font size seems tricky to many authors because different fonts do not appear to be the same size when both are 12-point, for example. The size of a font depends on the size of its largest, quirkiest letters and is related to the size of the block onto which it would be placed.
- Leading: Named for the strips of lead that were placed between rows of text, leading is the space between lines.
- Kerning: Kerning refers to the space between characters. The term comes from the word corner, because the corners of the letter block could be cut to allow overlap of space between characters.
To learn more about Durrie’s mission to spread moveable type across the country, visit her website, www.type-truck.com.
Moveable Type Truck from Jon Hall on Vimeo.
Spaces of Learning meet User Experience Design
Those planning construction or renovation projects for educational facilities might want to study the people using the proposed space as part of the construction and planning process. Dr. John A. McArthur makes this case in an article in the American Clearinghouse on Educational Facilities Journal. The publication, titled “Practical Lessons from User-Experience Design for Spaces of Learning,” uses information design theory to advocate for user participation in facilities improvement and management.
In the Editor’s Note, Mark Littleton writes, “John McArthur provides an eloquent discussion of user-experience design, a discussion that centers on facility design which favors spaces designed for learning over spaces designed for teaching.”
Dr. John A. McArthur is an assistant professor and director of undergraduate programs in the Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte.
Read the article – “Practical Lessons from User-Experience Design for Spaces of Learning” - in the journal’s online edition.
Voicing a Campus Icon: Twitter, a bronze goddess, and hyperlocal community engagement
Where do information design theory, digital media, and community engagment intersect? One location is on the Queens University of Charlotte campus inside a fountain in the middle of a major courtyard. That’s the home of @QueensDiana.
At the National Communication Association annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, I presented a paper on the hyperlocal community engagement enhanced by @QueensDiana, the Twitter page of the bronze statue Diana, Goddess of the Hunt.
My presentation surrounded the intersection between the user-experience of Diana and the sense of community created in that experience. Here are the visuals that accompanied my presentation.
If you’re interested in this topic and other case studies about the intersection of digital media and information design, look forward to our book on the topic coming out this spring.
Town Crier? Village Idiot? We each have role in public space
Town crier? Village idiot? We each have role in public spaceThis column ran in the Charlotte Observer on September 30, 2011 on the opinion/editorial page. The link above will take you to the column on the Observer’s website.
Facebook is changing the face of our private lives. The impending release of Facebook Timeline and Open Graph blurs the lines between private information and public announcements. Some critics suggest that Americans need to realize that all information shared online is public – regardless of the privacy controls we believe we have.
Next time you tweet or update your Facebook status, make a choice about who you want to be in the public space of the Internet. In our global village, are you a town crier, a costermonger, or just the village idiot?
Media theorist Marshall McLuhan suggested fifty years ago that electronics would lead us toward a global village – a world made smaller and more social by rapid advances in communication technologies. Many people believe that we now live in that small, interconnected village of loud citizens who publicize various aspects of our lives.
Sharing ourselves publicly is not a new phenomenon. In Medieval towns and villages, three types of people could often be found yelling in the streets.
The first, the town crier, was responsible for sharing the daily news. He walked the streets ringing a bell, shouting, “Oyez, Oyez!” His responsibility was to make announcements for the court, the government or other organizations considered influential by the people.
The second, the costermonger, was often known as a hawker or street vendor. She could be heard singing advertisements for her goods or trade. Whether selling strawberries, flowers, or clothing, this savvy businessperson used her voice to make a living.
The third was known around town as the village idiot. He ran through the streets making a joke or serving as one. His was the voice of the jester, the merrymaker, the town player or the buffoon.
In towns, there were also citizens. These townspeople weren’t often shouting. Instead they listened, discerning between the voices on their streets. They used their voices sparingly to join in the fun or to talk among themselves – and sometimes shout, if necessary.
In the global village, we give voice to our stories on Twitter and Facebook. We shout on YouTube and peddle our wares on eBay, Etsy, and blogs. We even identify our streets on Foursquare.
Each of us must make a choice about the voice we choose – the role we choose to play in our global village. Like the town crier, we could advance the news of the day. As a costermonger, we might be found practicing our trade. And many of us, like the village idiot, just add to the noise and festivity of our town. All of these voices can benefit the village.
However, the more important role in our global village is the one of citizen. The citizen listens, thinks, evaluates, and then joins in the discussion. My hope is that, like the citizens of the villages of old, each of us can learn to distinguish between the voices of the crier, the costermonger and the idiot. Only then can we become engaged citizens, fully participating in the global village.
John A.McArthur, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and director of undergraduate programs in the Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte. He can be reached at http://jamcarthur.com
9/11 Remembered in Memorials
This column was featured as "Share Your Own Memory" in today's Greenville News.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was sitting in a classroom on the first day of the term at Furman University. I had just finished the first course of my senior year – “Freedom in the Western Tradition” – and was settling into my second of the day – “Islam.”
The irony of that juxtaposition was not lost on me that morning.
As planes crashed in New York City, Washington, DC and a field in Pennsylvania, I watched and prayed. Two days later, as news was still developing, student leaders at Furman led a prayer vigil for our country. At our opening of school convocation, the Furman community sang a hopeful “America, the Beautiful” in place of the typical rendition of our alma mater.
A decade after 9/11, each of us can remember our feelings of shock, anger, and fear and tell the story of where we were when the news found us. When we take the time to share our stories, we memorialize the event. But the stories of those that perished in the attacks will be forever told through our national memorials.
The Pentagon’s 9/11 memorial was dedicated three years ago. 184 benches, each representing one of the lives lost at the site, jut up from the ground and hover over reflection pools. The benches are arranged along an age line – from the youngest victim aged 3 to the oldest, 71. Each is engraved with the name of the victim for whom it stands.
While facing the Pentagon, visitors see the inscriptions for those that died in the building; whereas the inscriptions for those who died aboard the plane can be read by facing the sky in the direction from which the plane travelled.
The gravel underfoot, the sound of flowing water, and the peeling paperbark maple trees at the site give the sensation that this is a place of memory, different from the area around it.
The memorials at the World Trade Center in New York City and the site of the Flight 93 crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania will be dedicated this weekend. Like the Pentagon Memorial, the two memorials to be dedicated on this solemn anniversary tell the stories of the lives lost there.
Each memorial is set apart from its surroundings, creating a place for reflection. Each shares the stories of the victims as individuals. And each creates a space designed for national remembrance.
Memorials move us from saying an independent, “I will never forget,” to declaring as a nation, “We will always remember.” They cause us to pause, to contemplate our history, and to share our own stories.
This September 11th, take the time to learn about our three national memorials and the stories of the lives they represent, reflect on the events of these last ten years, and tell your own story of remembrance.
Dr. John A. McArthur is an assistant professor in the Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte and resides in Greenville, SC. Contact Dr. McArthur at http://jamcarthur.com
“Out of the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope”
As I entered the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC this week, I marched through the mountain of despair. Looking through the gap, all I saw was the east, the water, the promise of life greater than myself. I can only imagine that this was the designer’s intent: that we would walk through the mountain of despair with King and emerge still looking forward.
Then, by turning around, I could look back on King’s likeness and memories of his work. This turning, this remembrance, is important. But King’s eyes direct me back to the east into the water, pushing me forward, spurring me to add to his work.
King is larger than life, standing 28 feet tall and emerging from a stone. The stone that was once part of the mountain of despair has been cut free, pulled forward, and engraved. A quote on its side reads, “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”
His gaze is transfixed eastward across the tidal basin toward the Jefferson Memorial and Jefferson’s promise that “All men are created equal.” His back is turned toward the Lincoln Memorial, building on the nation’s progress in the fight for justice. His likeness emerges from the stone – complete, yet giving the appearance that more work can still be done.
Behind King, the arc of the memorial veers from the mountain of despair toward the Washington monument in one direction and toward the water in the other. The quotes engraved into the arc remind us that King’s legacy is one of hope, democracy, justice, and peace, reminding us that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Letter from a Birmingham Jail).
Water flows down from the mountain of despair, and the cherry trees in the plaza – now green – will blossom anew each spring. In the darkness, the monument is washed in light from beneath and from the reflection of the water on the gleaming likeness of King.
Like King himself, the memorial calls on us to remember the past, but more importantly to look forward to a brighter future.
Author’s note: My visit to the memorial on Tuesday August 29, 2011, was 2 days after the planned dedication of the site and 1 day after the anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech, for which a time capsule was buried on the site. Due to Hurricane Irene, the dedication was postponed for a later date. I wonder if the chains surrounding the statue of King in this image are permanent – in the same way that they serve as a barrier in the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, or if the chains will be removed - leaving the site open like the FDR memorial - following the dedication.
Usability + Design = User Experience
I have stumbled along this sometimes somewhat stony path: from an analysis of users’ perceptions, to the notion of user satisfaction, to user experience… [alongside] some of the attractive theories that may have led me and others astray.
-Dr. Jurek Kirakowski
Clemson University’s MATRF, Usability Testing Center, and student chapter of the Society for Technical Communication welcomed Dr. Jurek Kirakowski to campus on June 20, 2011. As Director of the Human Factors Research Group at University College Cork in Ireland, Dr. Kirakowski studies human-computer interaction and presented today to a standing-room-only crowd of interested students, faculty, and at least one proud alum.
Among the highlights of Dr. Kirakowski’s lecture today was a brief overview of the history of usability testing in computers, beginning with analyses of behavioral tendencies and culminating in today’s focus on the user’s experience. In the trajectory of the field, usability has transitioned from a behavioral field toward one that understands the user as an individual, with individual needs and past experiences.
Usability can measure quantitative affective, behavioral, and cognitive responses, but it also needs qualitative explanations to really understand the user. An individual user’s experience with technology remains shaped not only by the technology she is using, but also by her past experiences with technology similar (and dissimilar) to the one being tested.
“We are humans who interact with the technology we create. We have the experience of using the technology, sure (experience of use); but we also have the experience of the technology in our lives (experience in use),” says Kirakowski. “It is our duty as researchers to extrapolate satisfying explanatory theories from the data ‐ and to test them.”
About Dr. Jurek Kirakowski
Dr. Jurek Kirakowski comes from a practical computer science and psychology background, which he applies in his specialty of study: the quantitative measurement of human‐computer interaction. He is the Director of the Human Factors Research Group at University College Cork in Ireland. This group has contributed the SUMI (Software Usability Measurement Inventory), and most recently the WAMMI (Web site Analysis and Measurement Inventory) questionnaires, which are both by now ‘de‐facto’ standards in their respective areas, showing how user experience can be objectively analysed and measured. He is a Statutory Lecturer in the Department of Applied Psychology where he teaches on methodology and statistics issues as well as HCI, and his Introduction to the Science of Psychology course is an extremely popular one among students.
Google Designs a Birthday Experience
In honor of Les Paul‘s birthday, Google has once again re-presented its iconic logo in a new form. This time, the guitar image plays on the user’s command to create an interactive experience.
To commemorate the reason for the design, I tried out my guitar skills. They don’t rival Paul’s, but here’s a sample:
The design of an experience like this one invites the user to play, to learn, and to be engaged – in this case, with a company’s logo. Such design asks the question, was this logo designed for Les Paul, or was it designed for me, the user?
Either way, it’s compelling design.
Designing Nutrition
The food pyramid is ancient history. In a move toward better communication, the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) ousted the pyramid in favor of “My Plate.” Is this better information design?
The new design certainly gives viewers the image of their dinner and a reference point for the way their plates should look. A quick glance reveals that half of a dinner plate should be filled with fruits and vegetables. A longer look suggests that the protein shouldn’t be the star of the plate.
Nanci Hellmich of USA Today reports that nutritionists like the practical change from the complicated pyramid released in 1992, and quotes first lady Michelle Obama as saying, “This is a quick, simple reminder for all of us to be more mindful of the foods that we’re eating.” After all, we don’t eat in pyramids.
Simplicity, elegance, and ease of information transfer are hallmarks of good design. “My Plate” is a vast improvement over the pyramid in those areas.In thinking about my own food consumption, I’ll remember “My Plate” when I look at, well, my plate.
My initial question is whether the plate suggests that we should be drinking dairy. The guidelines accompanying My Plate suggest we might choose to drink water.
What are your thoughts about the design of our new nutritional model?
