Design Innovations through Collaborative Research Methods

University of Cincinnati

ABSTRACT
Technology is presenting new opportunities for designers and educators to collaborate in developing tools for reading instruction. This paper shares a collaborative research study that leveraged visual communication design, reading literacy, and educational psychology research to help teach early reading skills through a multi-sensory experiential learning tool. This study demonstrates how collaboration and design problem-solving can contribute to addressing communication design problems and developing experiential learning methods.

Full Immersion: Beyond the Page + Screen

New Media
University of Idaho College of Art & Architecture

ABSTRACT
This paper examines the potential for integrating Experiential Graphic Design (XGD) within the context of a traditional graphic design/visual communication curriculum. This shift will better prepare students to work in a constantly evolving, competitive, and expanding field of design. Through documented student projects, we explored the development of XGD strategies and methodologies through the blending of traditional graphic design foundations, interactive, and time-based media that transform a user experience beyond the page and screen. The success of this type of new curriculum model is made possible by the co-location of art, design, new media, and architecture in an interdisciplinary college.

The Sustainable Challenges and Opportunities in Environmental Graphic Design

College of Design & Innovation
Tongji University

ABSTRACT
This paper examines the sustainable challenges and opportunities in environmental graphic design through the lens of two projects implemented in Shanghai. The first, a wayfinding program for the Shanghai South Railway Station, is a study in using EGD to support and enhance sustainable behavior. The second, a signage and EGD program for a practice center at Tongji University, demonstrates EGD’s ability to support cultural sustainability, particularly in the use of typography and symbols to connect users and create a unique sense of identity.

SEGD Core Competencies and Subsequent Implications for Professional Practice

Visual Communication Design
University of Notre Dame

ABSTRACT
The educational core competencies defined by SEGD systematically employ the language of “understanding” as a measurement for evaluating student skills and level of expertise. Half of the 28 core EGD competencies defined by SEGD begin with the word “understanding.” Yet these statements invite broad meaning and interpretation in the design of instruction as well as in the assessment of student performance. This paper addresses reexamining the EGD Core Competencies to promote student performance measures that lend themselves to evaluation aligned to career readiness expectations in EGD.

Inclusive, High Quality Decisions? Macro/Micro Design Impacts within our Everyday Experiences

School of Design
Rochester Institute of Technology

ABSTRACT
Age and physical ability are natural filters for assessing the successes of designed objects, messages, and experiences. Design problem solving contributes (or not) to the resolution of challenges faced by aging and/or physically challenged individuals as they interact with products and contexts in the built environment. This paper examines some design details, solutions, and situations that impact everyday inclusivity and quality of experience, and suggests approaches toward understanding and increasing interaction success for all of us.

Pushing Design’s Edges with Sound Interactions

School of Visual Communication Design
Kent State University

ABSTRACT
Sound is temporal, social, invisible, and physical. Though sound has long been part of design, it has not held a prominent place in our discourse. While design education has historically focused on visual communication, the ways we might create, select, and remix sound can positively influence a holistic approach to projects, transform the way we might speak to an audience, and play a role in shaping human experiences.