Humanistic Virtues in Information Graphics

The media, in confronting the challenge of presenting heartrending information and the overwhelming amount of bereavement on 9/11, relied on a quantifiable approach to designing such statistics for mass consumption. Evidently, production inserts keyed in on the bottom of television screens displayed scrolling numbers, sound-byte tracks of seemingly instantaneous gratification in coping with the economy of airtime and awesome amount of news. One could imagine information “tickers” of human tragedy—where numbers surmount, anxiety and anticipation cultivates. Quantitative virtues portrayed in these information graphics argued for numerical clarity in its message; whereby in the days following, the world could have been changed forever, and these momentary glances at numbers assuage how humanity stood frozen at that very moment in time. Nonetheless, today the tickers are gone; numbers are no longer news; families are left bereft; and a war is well underway. The media has retreated to capture screen shots of “Ground-Zero” as it stands in recovery, and the news, while still overpopulated with information, may perhaps be apologetic for the dispassionate exhibit it proposed soon after the catastrophe.

Fukumoto, Dane K.T. Orange Journal, The (2001). Design>Graphic Design>Information Design

Theoretical Approaches to Designing Experiences with Technology  

This paper examines various theoretical approaches on designing the user experience with technology and argues that a humanistic, conceptual framework augment current design industry practice. Taking into account psychological approaches and traditional narrative theory, this paper presents a theory for the human experience and applies this theory to "experience design," or the design of the human experience with technology. Guiding principles for the experience designer based on the paper's theoretical underpinnings are proposed.

Fukumoto, Dane K.T. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Technology>User Experience>Theory