All course content, projects, readings, and other handouts are collected in this Course Guide.
Follow the links at the bottom of this page for a schedule of readings, assignments, and due dates for each week this semester. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all assignments are to be completed before class on the day listed.
This course calendar may be updated throughout the semester. I'll notify you about any major changes, but you are still responsible for keeping up with the current schedule.
IMPORTANT: You must visit all of the links provided within the course calendar. There are many links to follow and read. Make sure you visit all of them. Some links provide easy access to other parts of the class site which will help you in your coursework. Some links are to required readings. Others provide you with detailed instructions on completing projects. Eventually, you may come to know the instructions that supplement assignments repeated throughout the course, but it's still a good idea to continue to revisit the instructions to make sure that you are satisfying all of the course requirements.
Group Activities
For Tuesday, January 15
Due Today
Lecture of Interest
Bob Stein, pioneer of the digital age and guru on the future of the book, will present today (Jan. 15, 2013) on "Social Reading Platforms and the Future of the Book" in the Strom Thurmond Institute Auditorium from 1:30 to 2:30 pm. You shouldn't miss this if you're interested in books, reading, and social networking.
Group Activities
In-Class and On Your Own
Exploring the class website:
Dropbox: You'll receive an invitation to join a Dropbox folder that we'll use throughout the semester to share files. Many course readings have already been put there. You should install the Dropbox client if you haven't already.
Due Today
Group Activities
For Tuesday, January 22
Explore
Check out the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition, "Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages."
Due Today
On Your Own
Group Activities
For Thursday, January 24
Due Today
Group Activities
For Tuesday, January 29
Extensions
Check out David Macaulay's TED talk on "Rome Antics": http://www.ted.com/talks/david_macaulay_s_rome_antics.html
Due Today
On Your Own
Group Activities
For Thursday, January 31
Please Note: Class will not meet on Thursday, January 31, because Dr. Blakesley has meetings with the Board of Trustees in Columbia. We will re-gather on Tuesday, February 5th.
Please Note: Class will not meet today because Dr. Blakesley has meetings with the Board of Trustees in Columbia. We will re-gather on Tuesday, February 5th.
For Tuesday, February 5
Due Today
Group Activities
For Thursday, February 7
Due Today
Group Activities
On Your Own
For Tuesday, February 12
Due Today
Group Activities
Learning Module 2: Annotating Images
On Your Own
For Thursday, February 14
Introduction of the Group Project: Client-Based Information Design. Choose a client/topic that you may be interested in and sign-up for it. Groups will be assigned based on interests. There should be no more than one graduate student per group.
Due Today
As a Group
For Tuesday, February 19
Continue work on Project 1: Qualitative Issues: Perceptions, Conventions, Proximity. Review Chapter 2 in Designing Information as you build your analysis. Remember that an analysis is not (strictly speaking) an evaluation but an elaboration of the features/parts/elements of the design and delivery of information.
Group Activities
On Your Own
For Thursday, February 21
Due Today
As a Group
For Tuesday, February 26
Due Today
On Your Own
As a Group
For Thursday, February 28
Due Today
Assigned
As a Group
For Tuesday, March 5
Due Today
As a Group
On Your Own
For Next Time
Please Note: Dr. B. has to leave town to present at two conferences at the end of this week and next, so there will be no in-class meetings on March 7, 12, and 14. However, you're expected to continue work on your group projects (client interviews) and Individual Project 2 and should be posting completed steps when they are due, which are listed on the project description and calendar.
Dr. B. is on a conference trip this week, so you should continue work on your collaborative project (client interviews and research) and Project 2: Quantitative Issues: Dimensionality, Comparison, Numbers, Scale
Due Today
On Your Own
As a Group
For Thursday, March 28
Due Today
On Your Own
As a Group
For Tuesday, April 2
Due Today
As a Group
For Thursday, April 4
Note that the due date for Project 2 has been extended to Tuesday, April 9.
As a Group
For Tuesday, April 9
Due Today
As a Group
For Thursday, April 11
Note: The Showcase has been rescheduled for April 24!
As a Group
On Your Own
Note: The Showcase has been rescheduled for April 24!
For Tuesday, April 16
Due Today
Peer Review
As a Group
On Your Own
As a Group
For Tuesday, April 23
Due Today
The Pearce Center for Professional Communication invites you to a showcase featuring student work from the Client-Based Program, the Pearce Center Interns, the Writing Fellows Program, and other Pearce Center sponsored initiatives. Students will be displaying their work in the newly redesigned Class of 1941 Studio for Student Communication in Daniel Hall. Please drop in between 11:30am-1:30pm on Wednesday, April 24. Light refreshments will be served.
Those able to attend should set-up no later than 11:15 am. Bring printed projects (where applicable) ready for display.
Last day of class . . .
Due Today
On Your Own
English 487/687: Multi-Touch, Interactive eBooks and the Future of Publishing |
English 489/689 |
http://parlormultimedia.com/information_design
Early in the semester, most of our class meetings will be in the MATRF, Daniel 409. As projects begin, individuals and groups may also work in the 1941 Studio for Student Communication, which is currently being transformed into a high-end production and design studio geared toward publishing high quality print and digital publications. Unless the course calendar indicates otherwise, class will begin in the MATRF. Access to the MATRF During Open Hours: Students may use the MATRF facility and equipment during its open hours throughout the semester. If you do want access, however, there’s a required materials fee of $45, which can be paid by check (payable to Clemson University) or cash to Kristin Sindorf in the English Department main office, Strode 801.
The primary readings for the course will be from the three required course texts, each available at the Clemson University Bookstore. The course calendar specifies what should be read and when.
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Joel Katz, Designing Information: Human Factors and Common Sense in Information Design (Wiley, 2012); ISBN: 978-1118341971 |
Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2002); ISBN: 978-0465067107 |
Edward R. Tufte, Envisioning Information (Graphics Press, 1990); ISBN: 978-0961392116 |
Digital Readings: This will be distributed electronically via Dropbox, the course website, our Feed Aggregator, a shared folder in Instapaper, and other sources. t will include timely articles on information design, interface design, visual communication, and more. Although not all feed articles will appear on the course calendar, you should read thee feeds regularly at our site's feed aggregator and via the blocks on the front page of the course site. Required readings will be listed on the course calendar at least a week in advance of the due date.
This course is designed to give students in-depth knowledge and experience in information design, data visualization, and information architecture, with extensions to the new field of interaction design. Course projects will teach the principles and practices of design, visual rhetoric, and visual analysis and will involve developing digital and print-based projects designed for publication on the Web or in print. At least one project will teach the principles of interaction design useful for creating apps for smart phones and tablet computers. Another may involve designing an interactive exhibit in which information design, usability, accessibility, user-experience design, and human-computer interaction may play a significant role.
The course is offered in the MATRF lab and on occasion in the Production and Design Studio in the Pearce Center for Professional Communication to allow for hands-on learning, collaboration, and design practice. Students will also gain experience useful for securing future internships or positions with local publishers like Parlor Press (http://www.parlorpress.com) or the Center for Electronic and Digital Publishing (CEDP).
Prior experience with Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver) and software that allows for data integration (Word, Excel, Google Docs) will be helpful but is not required at the start. Students may need to learn some coding with HTML and CSS.
Further details about each of these project will be discussed in class and linked from the calendar.
Reading Responses | 20% |
Bi-Weekly Modules | 10% |
Individual Projects | 40% |
Collaborative Project | 20% |
Showcase | 10% |
Total
|
100% |
To earn full credit for reading responses and bi-weekly modules you will need to complete all of them and, in the case of reading responses, actively respond to your peers on the course website. Your reading responses and replies should show that you’re engaged with the topic and open to new possibilities and ideas. Bi-weekly modules, because they must be completed during class, cannot be made up. The criteria for evaluation of the individual and collaborative projects will be spelled out on the full description of each. For the collaborative project, you’ll be asked to complete a Collaborative Project Evaluation Form and submit it privately to me on or before the project’s due date. For the showcase, you’ll be expected to participate actively in its planning and to present your work for the semester during the event.
You’ll receive oral feedback along the way throughout each project (in or out-of-class) and a grade on the individual projects after they’re completed. Individual projects may be revised once for further review, with the qualification that the revision be submitted within one week of their return to you.
Attendance is required at all scheduled meetings. Three absences may result in your final grade being lowered by as much as a letter grade. More than three absences can result in a failing grade for the course. Excused absences will only be granted for religious holidays or university-sponsored events, provided you make a written request to me no less than two weeks in advance and that you complete any required work before the due date. Being excessively or regularly late for class can also be counted as an absence. Note: If the instructor is late to class, you only need to wait fifteen (15) minutes.
Clemson students and their instructors are expected to adhere to the community and ethical standards for behavior and academic integrity at the University:
"As members of the Clemson University community, we have inherited Thomas Green Clemson's vision of this institution as a "high seminary of learning." Fundamental to this vision is a mutual commitment to truthfulness, honor, and responsibility, without which we cannot earn the trust 2 and respect of others. Furthermore, we recognize that academic dishonesty detracts from the value of a Clemson degree. Therefore, we shall not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing in any form."
"When, in the opinion of a faculty member, there is evidence that a student has committed an act of academic dishonesty, the faculty member shall make a formal written charge of academic dishonesty, including a description of the misconduct, to the Associate Dean for Curriculum in the Office of Undergraduate Studies. At the same time, the faculty member may, but is not required to, inform each involved student privately of the nature of the alleged charge."
Unless otherwise noted in assignment guidelines, you should not submit work for this course that has been submitted for a grade in other courses.
Students with disabilities who need accommodations should make an appointment with Arlene Stewart, Director of Student Disability Services, to discuss specific needs within the first month of classes. Students should present a Faculty Accommodation Letter from Student Disabilities Services when they meet with instructors. Student Disability Services is located in G-20 Redfern (telephone number: 656-6848; e-mail: sds-l@clemson.edu). Please be aware that accommodations are not retroactive and new Faculty Accommodation Letters must be presented each semester.
In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines and grading percentages are subject to changes that may be necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances. You can acquire updated information from the course website, by emailing, texting, or calling me using the information provided on this course description, or by contacting me through the English Department at (864) 656-3151.
The majority of missed class assignments cannot be made up. If a serious and unavoidable problem arises, however, you should contact me in writing prior to the deadline to determine whether or not an extension for the work will or will not be granted.
Course handouts, guides, tips, and miscellany will be collected here.
Identify one rich and complex example of information design for analysis using the terms and principles from Chapter 2 ("Qualitative Issues: Perceptions, Conventions, Proximity") of Designing Information. Your analysis should apply at least three of the principles discussed in the chapter, which include the following:
Your example for analysis should be one that can be viewed on a single screen or page, such as an information graphic, poster, flyer, book cover, or website front page. At the start of your analysis, you should include an image of the example and then some background information about its context. Your analysis should include screenshots, images, close-ups and whatever other visual content may be necessary to understand your analsysis or the basis of your conclusions. In your interpretation and conclusions, you should be sure to comment on whether the visualization of information has accurately represented the subject matter. The length of the analysis, in terms of word count, should be about 1,000 words, which may include narrative, annotations, and captions. You can use the presentation of content in Designing Information for your inspiration (i.e., layout) or other scheme that you devise.
This project asks you analyze, which is a method of elaborating the complexity of a subject by breaking it down into features, components, or parts, followed by an interpretation of how everything works together to achieve (or not) some purpose. Much will depend on your selection of an example of information design for analysis. You should pick an example that is complex and interesting enough to warrant your close attention (see some tips for finding good examples below).
The format and presentation of Project 1 will be an important consideration in its overall quality and evaluation, which means that you should take care to use a layout and design that best represents the content. Your polished draft should emulate the principles you're applying to your example. Use the elements of qualitative design (lines, shape, form, color, labeling, connections, notation, time, point of view, navigation) to present the information in a readable and persuasive format. You can, if you choose, use Designing Information itself as the inspiration for your layout. Your images should be good quality and can be annotated (using Adobe Acrobat, for example), and each should have a caption that includes a description and a credit line that identifies the source. You should use typography consistently and purposefully. I recommend using Adobe InDesign (and other tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat) to make the composition effective and relatively easy (managing effective and complex layouts in Word can be very tricky). If you don't know how to use InDesign, now would be the time to learn.
You must complete all three deliverables to earn credit for Project 1. Deliverable 3, your polished draft, will be evaluated based on your choice of an interesting and complex example, the quality and perceptiveness of your analysis of at least three of the principles, your effective use of the terminology of information design in presenting your analysis (terms from Designing Information or The Psychology of Everyday Things, for example), and the quality of your polished draft's presentation in terms of layout and design.
After you receive feedback on your polished draft, you may elect to revise and resubmit. If you choose to revise, you'll be required to include detailed submission notes with your revision. Submission notes should explain the significant revisions you've made to improve the project. All revisions should do more than make corrections and may involve reconceptualizing the approach or possibly choosing a new example for analysis. Revisions will be due one week after originally returned to you.
Search on Pinterest for examples of information design and posters:
http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=information+design
http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=poster+design
Information Graphics
Dailyinfographic.com
http://pinterest.com/source/dailyinfographic.com/
Information Is Beautiful
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/
Monsters University
http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/index.html
Using information (data) that you collect from a data source, create an original information graphic and accompanying story that displays the best practices discussed in Chapter 3 ("Quantitative Issues: Dimensionality, Comparison, Numbers, Scale") of Designing Information. You will also need to provide the primary data (e.g., in a table, screenshot, or other simple form) that you used to build your information graphic. Your (one page/screen) information graphic should demonstrate that you've learned the lessons from Chapter 2 on display/design and that you've understood the pertinent concepts in Chapter 3 on the following:
Your information graphic should be tightly focused on the representation of one particular data set (don't try to represent too much, in other words), with some type of comparison or change over time being the key tropes (a trope is a relational principle). Begin by formulating a question or hypothesis about some fact(s) that you've been curious about or that you think people would want to know or be surprised to learn about. Then research to find the relevant data and choose a form that would best convey the information to a reader. You'll then need to decide whether a graph (chart), timeline, data map, pyramid, or other visual display would best convey the data. It would be helpful to emulate a form (example) shown in Designing Information.
Your information graphic should be supported by a one-page (250-word) text that explains the data, written like a news article or magazine feature addressed to interested readers. (You could imagine, for example, that your information graphic was being published in Wired magazine.)
The reliability and comprehensiveness of data sources is critical, so for this project, limit your data sources to the following:
The format and presentation of Project 2 will be an important consideration in its overall quality and evaluation, which means that you should take care to use a layout and design that best represents the data and conveys the information clearly and elegantly. Use the elements of qualitative design (lines, shape, form, color, labeling, connections, notation, time, point of view, navigation) to present the information in a readable and persuasive format. Your images should be high quality, and your choice of typography well suited to the context, consistent, and purposeful. I recommend using Adobe InDesign (and other tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Excel, MS Word's drawing tools, or Google SketchUp; see http://www.sketchup.com/) to make the composition effective.
You must complete all four deliverables to earn credit for Project 2. Deliverable 4, your polished draft, will be evaluated based on the quality, design, and information represented in your graphical design; your accompanying story; the relation of graphical content to the data represented; the integrity of your data; and your effective use of the strategies for conveying quantitative information discussed in the course readings. Deliverable 4 must include all three parts: graphic, story, data source.
After you receive feedback on your polished draft, you may elect to revise and resubmit. If you choose to revise, you'll be required to include detailed submission notes with your revision. Submission notes should explain the significant revisions you've made to improve the project. All revisions should do more than make corrections and may involve reconceptualizing the approach or possibly choosing a new example for analysis. Revisions will be due one week after originally returned to you.
Drawing inspiration and concepts from Chapter 4 of Designing Information, create one simple and elegant form, pictograph, or sign that helps solve a real problem or need and does so with flair.
If you choose to develop a form, you can use InDesign or Word to create it, then use Adobe Acrobat in the finishing stages to create the form fields for easy fill-in. Or you can use Google Forms to create and design a form for collecting data online. Your form should serve a real need for a client, or you can ask Dr. B. for ideas and suggestions. If you choose to develop a pictograph or sign, it should be original, creative, and functional, suitable for posting as a sign (in the 1941 Studio, for example). In both cases, you could also create a "meta-form," "meta-pictograph," or "meta-sign," something that (humorously) comments on the nature of forms, pictographs, or signs (like the cartoon about the butterfly ballot). You could also create a visual pun (see p. 137 of Designing Information).
Your design should have a title or name and should be accompanied by a 100-word explanation or discussion, suitable, for example, as a plaque (as in a museum exhibit). Don't forget to attach your name (as the artist/designer).
The functionality of Project 3 will be an important consideration in its overall quality and evaluation, which means that your form should work well with the autdience and fulfill a need, or your pictograph or sign should accomplish a clear goal. Use the elements of structure, organization, type, hierarchy, and visual grammar discussed in Chapter 4 of Designing Information. Your images should be high quality and suitable for reproduction. Your choice of typography, if any, should be well suited to the context. I recommend using Adobe InDesign (and other tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Excel, MS Word's drawing tools, or Google SketchUp; see http://www.sketchup.com/) to make the composition of your forms or images effective and usable.
You must complete all three deliverables to earn credit for Project 3. Deliverable 3, your polished draft, will be evaluated based on the quality, design, and function of your form, or the usefulness, cleverness, or kairos of your pictograph or sign; your accompanying "plaque" or explanation, which should be well written and also suitable for public display (on the Web, on a wall); and your effective use of the strategies for organizing information, images, or text on the page or screen
After you receive feedback on your polished draft, you may elect to revise and resubmit. If you choose to revise, you'll be required to include detailed submission notes with your revision. Submission notes should explain the significant revisions you've made to improve the project. All revisions should do more than make corrections and may involve reconceptualizing the approach or possibly choosing a new example for analysis. Revisions will be due one week after graded projects have been returned to you.
Working with a real client, research, plan, draft, design, and test at least four related information graphics that meet the client's expressed need. You should interpret "information graphic" to mean any graphical representation that conveys information visually, either in the form of images and text or images alone. Some of the source information should be contributed by the client, at least in its raw form. In the end, the information graphics should accomplish a clear rhetorical purpose with a targeted audience.
It will be important to conduct client research so that you can learn more about the client's context and communication needs. The purpose of this project is not simply to produce content that you like but to produce content that the client likes and needs and that achieves a clear rhetorical purpose. The process, therefore, will involve meeting with the client, gathering information sources and visual assets, in-progress reviews, project logs, and user testing.
Pearce Center for Professional Communication and Parlor Press: For this project, you'll develop QR code art that represents the clients effectively.
1941 Studio for Student Communication/Pearce Center: For this project, you'll develop information graphics about the Studio for display on the newly installed LED screens in the Studio, as well as specifications for future displays.
Astronomy and Astrophysics Department: For this project, you'll develop information graphics about the Department and/or the Pearce Center for display using the Planetarium projector.
Clemson Book Lab: For this project, you'll develop information graphics about the Clemson Book Lab for promotional purposes and for display on LED screens.
Clemson Faculty Senate (probable client): For this project, you'll develop information graphics about the Senate's operations and role at Clemson.
The precise form of your deliverables will depend on client needs and may involve presenting your designs in PDF format, in print, in presentation technologies like Keynote, PowerPoint, or Prezi, as a physical display. Or on a website.
Each person on the team should play a specific role that should be negotiated at the beginning of the project and then reaffirmed at key stages of development. Everyone should contribute equally and all are responsible for ensuring that happens. At the end of the project, you'll be asked to submit a collaborative project evaluation form.
Your final grade on this project will depend on the quality of your deliverables, your group's timely completion of all steps in the process, your success in meeting client needs, and the quality of your collaboration.
Each person on the team should play a specific role that should be negotiated at the beginning of the project and then reaffirmed at key stages of development. Everyone should contribute equally and all are responsible for ensuring that happens. At the end of the project, you'll be asked to submit a collaborative project evaluation form.
This semester’s first speaker in the “Career Paths” series, a joint initiative between the English Department and the Pearce Center, is Jake Lappi, who after graduating with a BA in English in 2008 served for three years as a corps member in Teach for America. Jake is currently Assistant Principal at Reid Park Academy in Charlotte as part of the New Leaders for New Schools initiative.
This Friday, 1/25, Jake will make a 20-25 presentation at 4:00 in the Pearce Center’s Studio for Student Communication (first floor, Daniel Hall), then take questions and meet with students.
Please announce Jake’s visit to your classes. If you know of any students interested in Teach for America or possible careers in education, please encourage them to attend. Interested students may also be able to join Jake and Mike LeMahieu for lunch, so if you're interested, contact Dr. LeMahieu at mlemahi@clemson.edu.
Expanded and adapted from from Lisa Ede’s Work in Progress, 4th Edition. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.
To get started with your course, you'll need to complete a few steps, which include
Registering for the course website
To get started with your course, you'll also need to complete this second step:
Logging in for the first time
To get started with your course, you'll also need to complete this third step, which will take a bit more time than the previous two.
Editing your account for the first time
Once you've logged in successfully, you need to edit your account and provide some additional information about yourself.
That's it! You have completed all the steps of the Getting Started process. If you ever need to change any of the information, you can always edit these pages again.
If you have any trouble along the way, please be sure to let your instructor know.
The Multimedia Authoring Teaching & Research Facility (MATRF) is hosting its popular workshop series for students and faculty. This week's workshop will cover the basics of HTML5 including tags, styling, and composition. The workshop is Thursday, January 24th (12:00pm to 1:00pm) in 409 Daniel. It’s free, open to all, and will be led by MATRF staff members Katie Mawyer and Katie Hockaday. Snacks will be provided.
The MATRF will be hosting other workshops this semester. Please see our schedule at http://www.clemson.edu/caah/matrf/workshops/index.html for full details. Please contact Tharon Howard at tharon@clemson.edu if you would like to lead a workshop or if you have any questions.
Here's the You Suck at Photoshop video on Curves:
On or after the first day of class, you'll want to explore some of the features of the site. This document gives an overview of a few features you might want to take a look at that will help you to navigate the site.
In the header visible at the top of every page, you'll find one row of tabs that take you to various key pages on the course site. Follow them to see where they lead.
Once you've logged in to the site, you'll also find one or more "blocks" that contain additional site navigation or other content boxes. These boxes may be located on the left or the right side of the page, depending on the site's design.
The navigation block is your gateway to many areas of the site useful for creating and viewing content and managing your work. For example,
All course materials on the site are integrated into the course guide, which you can reach via the tab menu near the top of the page.
The course guide is a hypertext with many levels of pages.
Throughout the semester, you may keep a project log at the course website, either for an individual or group project. These will be blog entries tagged "project log."
Project logs help you keep track of your progress on complex projects, as well as provide a forum for receiving feedback from others who may be able to answer questions along the way or learn from your process. Project logs may be individual or shared among members of a group when the project is collaborative.
After college, you may find keeping a project log useful in your professional career:
Regularly post a short report in the form of a project log that follows these guidelines or includes this information. If you have both individual and collaborative projects ongoing, you should post separate Project Log entries and use a tag like project log (for individual projects) or nameofproject project log (for collaborative projects)
For collaborative projects:
Remember: Collaborative project logs are public and can be read by other group members. Be diplomatic. Do not write about what other group members failed to do or negatively evaluate their participation. Simply record what others have agreed to do and the tasks that they have completed. You will have ample opportunity to assess the work of others at the end of the project.
You can of, course, post more than once a week.
Creative Commons
http://search.creativecommons.org/
iStockphoto.com
http://iStockphoto.com
Wikipedia: Public domain image resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources
Music
Dan-o
http://www.danosongs.com/#music
Animoto
http://animoto.com
Books
Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/