Change, information and understanding: conference themes in 1997-98

Conference Themes in 1997-98 Recently I met with a group of Colleagues , all with masters' degrees in interaction and communication design, to discuss the current state of our careers. I heard job titles such as "Inno-vator" that would have been unimaginable several years ago. Many of us perform similar work yet few of our titles quite describe what we actually do. Our activities as designers are evolving so quickly that industry terminology can't keep up. Designers, in general, play an increasingly important role in an economy of accelerated change, where new solutions and specialties continually emerge. Tremendous amounts of money and serious social and political consequences are at stake. Digital media, technology, and particularly the web offer new forms for human interchange which challenge social norms, and for which there is not yet a mature and distinctive language of expression. It's an exciting time for designers. This year I attended two conferences that addressed these new challenges to designers. conferences featured talented presenters and impressive work; however, each defined and approached issues regarding communication and the role of design somewhat differently. The Living Surfaces conference focused on issues concerned with "Digital Liter-acy", an interesting and relevant theme that explored changes in communication design occurring as a result of digital technology. But what, exactly, is meant by the term? Comprehension? The ability to be expressive and have your ideas understood? In what ways has the exchange between designers and audiences changed? And how can we become more "digitally" articulate? Nearly all designers today use digital tools in their practice, and these tools affect their work, if not their thinking. Using Photoshop to design a book cover is a much simpler type of confrontation with digital technology than, say, designing a distance learning program for the web; involvement in the digital medium occurs at different levels of complexity. The presenters at Living Surfaces can be seen to have fallen into several categories. First, there were those who us with its effect on their practice. Second were those concerned with the effects of digital media's growing ubiq-uity upon marketing and design strategy and on culture, due to the quantity and nature of our exchanges. Third were those few who are immersed in projects involving totally new technology and communication capabilities, where digital technology makes its most dramatic impact on design activity. While good design is driven more by ideas than tools, it …