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We add some small print in order to sharpen this perhaps
overly blunt explanation.
First a remark about those ‘contemporary needs of people
and society’ that information design endeavors to meet: Academic research needs to provide guidance and vision, or as
John Ziman expressed it, be «the central intelligence agency
of the civil society». This role becomes increasingly sensitive
with the growing evidence of non-sustainability of our current
trends. But diagnosing problems, however necessary, is still
not sufficient. In information design our main focus is on facilitating solutions. Information design may be understood as
an academic space where human and other resources can be
refocused, so that new thinking and solutions to new problems
may be developed.
To exhibit and open up this space, we have developed a
portfolio of example projects, which point at an excitingly
rich repertoire of research directions that can be undertaken
within information design. Our projects include re-designs
in education, travel and healthcare, of common information
formats such as the book and the film, of a corporate business model, and even of the very way in which information is
created and used. Such re-designs can easily be identified as
factors of positive change, and perhaps even as necessary steps
along the way to a sustainable future.
The question may be asked: When we no longer conform
to the traditional disciplinary rules, are we then not distancing
ourselves from the academic rigor, which is the distinguishing mark of our profession? Our traditional understanding of
academic rigor has developed based on an antique assumption
that academic information represents reality, which has been
challenged in conemporary science and philosophy. In information design we undertake to develop new academic standards, bassed on up-to-date and explicitly stated premises.
Information design may also be understood as a political
act. It is what we need to do in order to free our language,
thought and action from ubiquitous and often subtle power
influences.
A purpose of information design is to help us find new
and better uses for information technology. To do that, we
need to free ourselves from habits. When we use the information technology to speed up the habitual patterns of use, the
result is the information overload. And as our projects illustrate, when we no longer rely on habits but practice information design, a variety of possibilities for applying the information technology to contemporary problems open up.