Information Design
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Space Invaders, episode one
As a child in the American south in the 1980’s, secondhand smoke was part of growing up. It was in the house, the car, on school playgrounds, at every restaurant and shopping mall. On trips, my brothers and I observed miles of tobacco fields from the car windows. I’ve never smoked a day in my…
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Navigating the campus with new eyes
Students in my communication seminar on proxemics in the Knight School conducted a wheelchair accessibility audit of campus. The audit helped students to better understand how people different from themselves understand and use built space. The following story was featured on the Queens University of Charlotte website about the project: Navigating the campus with new eyes…
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Mapping Innovation: a discussion with digital entrepreneur Nick Such
When was the last time you got lost? Self-proclaimed “indoor map nerd” Nick Such wants to come to the rescue. “People getting lost in buildings is a problem we can solve,” says Such, CEO of BuildingLayer and founder of Awesome Inc. As CEO of BuildingLayer, much of his current work focuses on indoor mapping of built spaces.…
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I took my graduate students to Walmart. Don’t judge.
Everytime I write an paper about user-experience design, I try to illuminate the main concept by comparing Ikea and Walmart. So, it made sense to me that instead of talking about this comparison in my graduate course in “Space, Technology & User Experience,” I would utilize the actual spaces to make the comparison for me. My…
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“Design Thinking” at ACBJ’s Digital Speaker Series
Our Community 2.0 project is starting to generate some attention, and I was honored to be invited to share my work in the Digital Speaker Series hosted by American City Business Journals in Charlotte, North Carolina, last week. Here is the slide deck from the presentation, which focused on applying design thinking to the issues of…
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Now Available: Community 2.0
As our society becomes more saturated with digital technologies, members in and leaders of all types of communities will be challenged to incorporate, assess, and even design digital and media tools and experiences for their communities. Community 2.0 – at the intersection of digital media and information design – aims to integrate information design squarely…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Voicing a Campus Icon
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…
J.A.McArthur 