Social movement information design and a curriculum of proper knowledge consumption

• Authors: Gabriel Y. Schaffzin
• Venue: DUXU'13 Proceedings of the Second international conference on Design, User Experience, and Usability: design philosophy, methods, and tools - Volume Part I
• Year: 2013

Narrowing in on two contemporary social movements as a case study, this analysis will use a mainstay of information design, Edward Tufte, as well as a lesser-known pioneer in the field, Otto Neurath, to consider the ways in which the infographics associated with those movements can be looked at critically. Using Tufte's popularity and commercial success as an indication of his strong influence on this field, questions about the appreciation of efficiency or validity of message at the expense of craft, nuance, and meaning making will be raised, eventually concluding that a new approach to the consumption of information design is necessary.