Information Design

I had the awesome opportunity to take Information Design (DAI 523) with Prof. Trogu. If you’re a DAI student, I highly recommend this class. It’s a great introduction to info design. We learned how to gather information (through researching and web scraping), organize the data and the various forms of visualizations. If you’re new to this area of design, check out the site Many Eyes to to get your feet a little wet. Also, if you want to see some really rad examples of info design, check out Good Magazine, Information is Beautiful, and Info Aesthetics.

As you might have remembered, I posted a concept map I did in the beginning of the semester. More has been done since then:

This was the final assignment, which was my favorite (and scale wise, the biggest) project of the entire semester. Aside from the fact that we finally got to design information, I liked the fact that it entailed designing a large poster (34 x 44 in) that can be folded down to 8.5 x 11. I really would have loved to have been able to design more large scale pieces at SF State. Yes it’s a little costly, but I enjoyed (and want more of) the challenge of designing at a larger scale.


This 8.5 x 11 index card is part of a class set. Each student got to choose an aspect of information design, anything from designers to pie charts and various forms of maps, to the use of color. After watching the Powers of 10, I was really inspired by the Eames’ process of organizing and displaying information. While they are most famously known for their fabulous furniture design, I found that they were incredible at displaying complex information in a very simple way that allows anyone to gain a deeper understanding of a particular topic. I mean, isn’t that what information design is about??? Plus I really, really, really wanted to design something based on the Eames after doing the Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design project.

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These last two pieces are about the U.S origins of the bands that played the South by Southwest Music Festival. For this assignment, Many Eyes was my best friend! I used the site to find the data and the visualizations. The assignment was a fun exercise for visualizing and especially helpful for those us who were not quite familiar with doing info design.

All in all, I would have to say that this was my favorite class (along with Creative Lab & Design Process with Prof. Chu) at SF State. It was a challenging course but very rewarding. Not only did I get a taste of this somewhat new area of design, but I had a professor who was super helpful and knowledgeable, and inspired me to push myself. I also had to the opportunity to be around students (who were a mix of product & graphic) who liked the challenge as much as I did and who were collaborative and were willing to share knowledge and experiences with one another, which is something that was lacking in many of my other classes. There was something kind of special about this class that had a lot of creative energy.