English 711-001
Topics in Professional Writing: Information Design
Instr: Clark, Dave
Office: CRT 582; 229-4870
e-mail: dclark@uwm.edu
Office hours: TBA
Course Information: T; 5:30-8:10pm; CRT 119
Course Description
In this graduate-level seminar, students will explore the discipline of information design from the perspective of civic engagement, reading and critiquing the work of noted design scholars such as Tufte, Norman, and Jacobson and also that of noted community scholars such as Cushman, Grabill, and Faber. As a result, where much of the scholarship in information design focuses on designing for "typical," commercial end users, students will focus on the unique problems of researching and designing to meet community needs. For example, how can small, resource-limited organizations best manage their knowledge and information, disseminate their messages, and create and maintain information products like brochures and interactive web sites? In the readings and discussions, students will develop answers by synthesizing the literature in information design and community engagement, and they will gain hands-on experience by designing real products to solve real problems.
