Information design is concerned with the presentation of print or digital content. This course is designed to help you develop a professional sensibility for making stylistic choices appropriate for particular situations and audiences and the skills to implement those choices.

My perspective of information design is informed by Saul Carliner's Information and Document Design (2006), who says that he defines information design as:

preparing communication products so that they achieve the performance objectives established for them. . . . Information design differs from document design in that information design addresses the issue of whether readers can understand a text, not merely whether they can find information on it.
(pp. 2-3)

This definition shows, I think, the complex, problem-solving process involved in the design process. In short, information design is the presentation of content for a specific purpose, situation, and audience.

This course will introduce you to a variety of strategies for designing and integrating visual and textual elements in ways that not only make a document more accessible to readers but also demonstrates the ability to address design problems. Course discussion and readings will focus on analysis of the design problem, principles of effective design, and visual conventions. We will use software from the Adobe Creative Suite 5 (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign, and Acrobat). See the important READ ME message in the next section about the versions of this software. I will demo some features of this software, but it is your responsibility to take some initiative for your own learning of this software (see "Learning Software" below).

In this class, you will learn...

• to become familiar with and use design language.
• to understand design as a problem-solving process.
  
• to analyze audience, purpose, and situation as they pertain to the design situation.
• to apply principles of design effectively.
• to develop a design sensibility through standards, style sheets, and practice.
• to develop technical skills with design software

Required

The Non-Designer's Design Book, 3rd Ed, Robin Williams

The Non-Designer's Web Book, Robin Williams & John Tollett

The Non-Designer's Photoshop Book, Robin Williams and John Tollett

The Non-Designer's InDesign Book, Robin Williams

Dreamweaver CS5 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual Quick Start Guide, Tom Negrino and Don Smith

Recommended

The PC is Not Typewriter, Robin Williams

Partial List from this book

Everyone learns software in a different and preferred way. Feel free to use whatever learning tools you'd like. If you prefer not to purchase the InDesign and Photoshop books, I have used and like lynda.com as an online source, which costs about $25/month.

All assignments should be submitted through dropbox.com. I have created a course folder called Information Design Spring 2012 and a folder for each of you according to your last name. Within that folder is another folder called Ready for Grading. I will assume that any documents placed in this folder are ready to be graded.

You will need to create an account at dropbox.com in order to submit your assignments. This account is free and comes with 2 GB of storage. You will receive an invitation to join the shared folder from me shortly before the semester begins or by the first night of class.

Because I need to provide you all access to the course dropbox folder (Information Design S 2012), which will include multiple folders with materials necessary for the class (e.g., worksheets, readings, and so on) and which includes students' folders, everyone will have access to everyone else's folder. We will work on the honor system and agree that no one will go into someone else's folder without permission.

I like to run my classes mostly as workshops, which means that there tends to be quite a bit of chaos. I prefer this method because I believe that we learn by doing and from each other. If I'm helping a student at one computer, other students will be able to hear and learn as well. I know that this can lend itself to a chaotic atmosphere, but I hope that you all will be able to find a way to work in this environment.

When creating any kind of symbolic work (writing, editing, design), we tend to become very attached to the work we've done. I tend to critique right in class because it's likely that whatever difficulty you might be having, other students are also experiencing it.

Like writing, design is subjective and seems to be based on personal preference. Although that perspective may work for works of art (paintings, sculptures, and so on), when creating technical documents, design is a question of usability and readability. If you are so married to your design that the critique hurts your feelings, generally that means that you are designing for yourself and not for what the audience needs.

Design decisions must be supported by a justification that supports the needs of the audience, purpose, and situation of the document. If you cannot justify a design decision competently, you don't get to use it.

There is no one way to learn software application. Everyone learns software differently and at different paces. Some people prefer to have a book to consult, some rely on help menus, and some search the web for tutorials. I do not require any one way to learn the software used in class. Whichever method you choose, working with the software takes a lot of practice. Working with the software only once a week during class is likely to leave you frustrated and feeling inadequate.

It is up to individual students to find their own best method for learning and to seek out appropriate resources. One of the best ways I've found to learn a software application is to try to recreate a design I've seen.

Although I will provide some short demos during class time, I do expect students to seek out the resources they are most comfortable with and learn on their own. What I can offer are recommendations:

1. Adobe offers a help system in a special website called the Adobe Design Workshop, which provides mini-Flash movies of various techniques for learning most of its software.
2. The UNO library offers access to Safari Books Online, an online instructional resource favored by many designers today.
3. I have found the Peachpit Press' Visual Quick Start books (such as the Dreamweaver book I've ordered) to be well written and easy to follow. Generally, they cost anywhere from $20-$35, but I have seen quite a few used copies on amazon.com. Peachpit press offers PDF versions of their manual for a lower price. I've also used the Bible series.
4. The Non-Designer's software books that I ordered for class are newly published. So, I'm not sure how effective they are. I'll be interested in your opinion of them.

If you are unfamiliar with the programs in the Adobe Creative Suite, you need to think about how best to go about learning them.

We will be using the following Adobe Creative Suite 5 programs: Photoshop (image manipulation), Dreamweaver (website creation and editing), InDesign (layout and design), and Acrobat (print). You are welcome to use other programs, but I may not be able to help you troubleshoot

The Adobe Creative Suite is available in ASH 145 and 300 and at the Criss Library.

ASH 145

Our classroom computers have the Adobe Creative Suite 5.0 version, which includes Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, and other applications. Given that you will likely be working on documents you started elsewhere, be sure to read the "InDesign Workaround" section below.

ASH 300

The Arts & Sciences lab is located in ASH 300. It includes the same software as in ASH 145, but on limited machines.

Criss Library

Despite being told that the library IT would be purchasing CS 5 (which is why A&S updated), they did not. Because Adobe does not provide for backwards versioning, any documents you create in a newer version you may not be able to open them in previous version.

For example, if you download the 30-day free trial from adobe.com, you will get the 5.5 version and will not be able to open any InDesign document in the library, ASH 145, or 300. Likewise, if you create an InDesign document at the library in CS 4, you will be able to open in in ASH 145 or 300, but will not be able to re-open it again at the library. However, there is a workaround for InDesign. See below.

InDesign Workaround

You can export the InDesign CS 5 or 5.5 document to the InDesign Markup (IDML) format that InDesign CS5 and InDesign CS4 will be able to open. From the 'File' menu in InDesign CS5.5, go down to 'Export…' then from the pull-down menu, select 'InDesign Markup (IDML)' and save your file. The exported file will have the .idml file extension that you can open in InDesign CS5 or CS4. If you have used any InDesign CS5.5 specific features in your document, they are unlikely to translate to any earlier version.

Purchasing the Creative Suite

If you intend to take all the technical communication courses, you may want to consider purchasing CS 5. As a student, you can purchase it for the education price somewhere between $438-894 depending on the suite you purchase from academicsuperstore.com or through UNO bookstore or UNL. NOTE: You'd be buying the 5.5 version. Likewise, if you download the free trial version from adobe.com, you'll be downloading the 5.5 version. The workaround should still work.

My classes and pedagogy are informed by a learning theory called communities of practice (COP). A community of practice is a group of people that shares a concern or a passion for something they do and who interacts regularly to learn how to do it better. Members of these communities share an identity defined by a shared domain of interest—that is, an enterprise to which each member is devoted.

Over time, they develop a sense of competence through mutual engagement in practice, which evolves over time and pratice. These ways of working eventually constitute a shared repertiore of practices. In practice, they adhere to certain expectations for belonging to that COP that connects to the community's shared identity and practice. Also in practice, members develop rules for negotiating meaning for the enterprise and identity. Contributing to the community's repertiore of practices and knowledge domain is how individual members add value to the enterprise.

All students should review information about COPs, especially in terms of the collaborative project.

Communities of Practice Booklet (Bridgeford)

As in the professional workplace, much of the work we will be doing in this class depends on your interaction with others; therefore attendance is an essential component of your grade. If you must miss a class, please let me know ahead of time and be prepared to offer a plausible excuse. Missed classes do have a bearing on your grade: if you miss more than one class, you can expect a deduction in your grade. Keep in mind that a miss is still a miss, whether you have a good excuse or not. Students are required to attend ALL workshops and presentations.

Additionally, if you must miss a class, please find out from someone else in class what happened that day and the details of any assignments. I simply and honestly do not have the time to re-present what we've done in class—but if you ever want to discuss something that came up in class or look at versions of the work you are doing for class, I'll be more than happy to meet with you.

I go out of my way to offer class time for working on projects. Therefore, anyone who misses a workshop or presentation day (unless previously excused) will not receive an A in this class.

Assignments/Deliverables

Every class meeting will involve some type of assignment. Out-of-class assignments are due to dropbox BEFORE class begins and in-class assignments are due at the end of class. All assignment descriptions are available under the Deliverables tab.

At the end of the semester, students will submit a semester portfolio (i.e., contents of their dropbox folder) that represents all work completed for this course with an end-of-the-semester self-assessment memo that will act as a cover memo for the portfolio, individual activity logs, and performance evaluations.

Students should submit all assignment to dropbox.com. Do not email assignments to the instructor.

Assignments and readings are due on the day they appear on the weekly schedule.

• I reserve the right to make changes to the weekly schedule when necessary.
• Late assignments risk losing points.
• Students deliberately missing a workshop or presentation day will not receive an A.

Warning: I generally do not respond to first-year questions such as

How long does this have to be?
As seniors and graduate students, you should be well aware that a document is as long as it needs to be. If you don't have enough content, it means you haven't done enough research. And because documents have a particular audience, purpose, and situation, you should be asking yourself, Have I included everything the audience needs. If you aren't asking that question, then you are not applying what you are leaning in class.

Will this be on the quiz?
What do you think?

What do you want?
As seniors/graduate students, you should know and be able to articulate how the instructor is NOT the audience for a document. Instructors grade your attention to audience. They do not grade how well you guess what they want (or at least, I don't). If you, as seniors and graduate students, still think that your audience is the instructor, please bring it up in class so that we can start a discussion.

Accommodations are provided for students with registered disabilities.

For more information contact
Services for Students with disabilities

Kate Clark, Disability Services Coordinator
UNO Disability Services
6001 Dodge Street, EAB 117
Omaha, NE 68182
Phone (402) 554-2872, TTY (402) 554-3799, Fax (402) 554-6015
E-mail mkclark@mail.unomaha.edu

What I hear at the end of the term from almost everyone is "I put more time into this class than I have into any other class"—with the implication that time alone should earn you an A. I do believe students work hard, but working hard does not equal excellence.

Although this class (or any Technical Communication class) does require a lot of time, time alone does not make for excellent work; time alone does not make for work that gives you shivers of pride when you see it and gives others the sense that attentive thought went into the work.

As you work in this class, you need to be attentive to what you are doing. You need to be focused on this work and nothing else—for the time that you are working on it. You need to look at your work continually and ask yourself if it gives you pleasure and pride, if it is an expression of all you are capable.

The list that follows includes observations of the kinds of activities and attentions I have seen in others who have performed A-level work in this class:

Developing and sustaining lively intellectual engagement with the ideas and concepts of class

• You come to class prepared to discuss the readings, with questions and opinions and considerations of consequences.
• You actively seek feedback on your own work from others, before it is due.
• Your work is on time and complete.
• Your work shows that you think about and respond to the feedback you receive from me and from others.
• You discover new resources for helping you do the work of class and share them with your instructor and classmates

Making steady and questioning application of the concepts and discussions in class

• You continually look around to see how people interact with the world (both natural and virtual) and other people, and ask yourself which interactions seem to support the kind of world in which you want to live—and then you work consciously at making your work encourage those kinds of interactions.
• You are continually attentive to how you and others learn and work to have the software you develop encourage others in their learning.

Taking personal responsibility for developing the technical skills you need in this field.

• You recognize that the technologies of our time are changing rapidly (with consequences for the pocketbooks and attentiveness of all of us), and that there is therefore no way this class can be your only source for learning all the technical skills or critical abilities or all the computer applications you need or want.
• You therefore work consciously to develop a questioning and personal relation with the technologies you use in your work, being carefully attentive to what *you* need to learn and the approaches by which you learn best.
• You are continually on the lookout for designs that use the technology (including non-computer technologies) differently from how you do, so that you learn not only that your way is not the only way but you also learn to turn to others for support and assistance.
• You make use of the considerable technical resources of the class and the lab. You ask others for assistance, you look through the materials provided, and you come to office hours with questions about how to do something.
• You share that knowledge with others in your community of practice, whether it is the class itself as a community, or the various collaborative groups you may work with while taking Technical Communication courses.

Contribute to a final project that shows all of us—including yourself—that you are engaged, learning, and applying what we discuss in class.

• Your final project may not be as complete as you would like, but what it does have is the result of much experimentation on your part: you have tested out different possible interactions and approaches, and have found one (or more...) that seems to you to encourage people to learn what you intended and to learn it richly.
• Your final project is engaging: you have used experimentation and testing to redesign your project so that people *want* to use it and *do* learn from it.
• Your final project is designed fully to achieve your goals: its buttons and interactions and screens have the appropriate level of polish, cohesion, and color for your audience and intention; its structure and interactions support the overall intentions of the piece.