Panel session: (left to right) Alison Black, Erik Spiekermann, Barry Sheerman MP, Rachel Cooper OBE, Paul Rodgers
We were delighted by the enthusiastic, capacity attendance on 5 February at a parliamentary event to raise awareness of the importance of designing information for public understanding, and to celebrate our book Information design research and practice. The evening, co-organised with the All Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group, was opened by the Chancellor of the University of Reading, The Right Honourable The Lord Waldegrave of North Hill, and Barry Sheerman MP chaired a lively panel session and discussion (above). Topics ranged from information design that hadn’t worked as intended, through the density of information in legal and regulatory documents, to the use of information design in changing behaviours. The more formal part of the evening was concluded by a presentation from the Dear How to team, Josefina Bravo, Tomoko Furukawa and Sol Kawage, all graduates of our MA Information design course, who are near the close of a year-long challenge to each draw and send to one another a set of non-verbal instructions every week.
Dear How to: (left to right) Tomoko Furukawa, Sol Kawage and Josefina Bravo
We’re grateful to Lord Waldegrave and Barry Sheerman MP, respectively, for hosting and steering us so generously, and to the many parliamentarians, design professionals and researchers, including contributors to our book, who helped make the evening so lively and interesting (more pictures here). We’re looking forward to following up the many new ideas and connections stemming from the event.