The world has become an increasingly complicated environment because the information describing it has grown at an unchecked and uncontrollable rate in terms of circulation and size. This has been compounded by rate of the digitalisation, which has impacted on its transparency of the information. The traditional tools used by designers for interpreting this and intervening in it are no longer sufficient; therefore the methods that we use to teach students are also no longer sufficient.
It is the tools that are being used that are letting the students down, the way they think and approach a problem is not developing. Collaboration with outside agencies and business is imperative, but the process needs to be structured and must start at the core, with the institutions that teach them.
I am a strong advocate in this having been the product of this process; education can often feel like a protective bubble closed of from the outside world. Now working in one of those consultancies I can understand why this lack of communication and collaboration has been allowed to happen. There is a precariously poised balance between money and time.
The aim should be to teach students to intervene in this complex environment by developing new design tools – soft and hard, rather than focus purely on the redesign of an object or service. This process can’t be narrowed to a single design discipline. It will encompass all, graphic, interactive, product and digital. The time when someone could call themselves a ‘graphic designer’ or a ‘product designer’ has long gone, we are now all multi disciplinary. As with any new idea the cost of implementation may be great but the long-term outcomes are priceless.
Information Design is a focus on the development of strategies, technologies, products and services for mapping out of and understanding a fast developing and complex world. Designers will need to evolve to have a chance to play a role a new meaningful role in an increasingly complex world. This new role will be demanding on the designer’s expertise and analytical, aesthetical and communicative skills.
