Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this! Tackling this issue — and more specifically, defining the problem situation — isn’t particularly easy, given the complexity and depth of the subject(s). At a bare minimum, this post was an attempt to open Pandora’s box and reveal what I felt to be core challenges facing a still-fuzzy field of study and practice struggling to define itself. Central to the problem, I think, is the tension between formalization and democratization, and the contradictory messages that this conflict sends about what information design is and isn’t. Pop culture and media perpetuate a shallow aesthetic of “beautiful data,” while schools and professionals largely work in silos to crystallize the substance and purpose of information design. Then again, some might argue the opposite.

To your point about education not always leading to practice, the imperfect and largely non-linear trajectory of careers these days reflects the evolving nature of work itself. I think many colleges and universities are rapidly trying to keep up with marketplace shifts by creating hybrid programs of study and introducing more cross-disciplinary coursework. My concern is that, with the growing demand for information design skill and current swell of interest, few schools are doing much about it, leaving both potential employers and motivated young designers in a lurch.

You are right in pointing out that there are more questions than answers here; I hope to expand (and amplify) this conversation and uncover the diversity of views into these topics so that, collectively, some answers might emerge.

There’s quite a bit here–no doubt your 12 years of experience in the field is the 7/8 of the iceberg beneath this post. You’re raising many valid points and questions, though I’m not sure how many satisfying answers there are to be had. Thinking of the very phrase, “information design,” both words of this compound concept are extremely broad and flexible, connoting a massive array of possible meanings depending upon the speaker and the listener.

So what does information mean to you? Or what does design mean to you? That’s about as fundamental as it gets. For me, even “going there” requires some kind of means of focusing or narrowing the meaning–as if to specify, “information about what?” or “design of/for what?”

All that said, here are a few quick responses:

1. You wrote, “GOOD magazine has done a noteworthy job of incorporating information design in clarifying social, political, and environmental issues, but I often cringe at what gets published in the Transparency section. So much rich data, yet so few skillful or insightful visualizations.” I completely agree, and this is where the “about what?” “for what?” distinction is helpful. All of these fancy visualizations would be much more valuable if they were the response of a truly earnest question. But more often than not, they are merely the response to the availability of data. What a bore, and what a waste.

2. You also wrote, “It’s hard to find places to study information design.” True. However, at this (increasingly seasoned but still hopefully early) point in my career, I’m finding that there are few places to study much of what most people end up doing. Aside from those “big category” professions — medicine, law, the sciences, or perhaps the military — many of us studied things that don’t exactly translate to professions. (Don’t worry, I realize I’m generalizing dangerously here.) Sometimes I wish we could transition from a university to job dichotomy back to a broader field of options, which in addition to academic to professional tracks, included more direct paths from apprenticeship to practice.

As always, I appreciate your thoughtful perspective and am glad you take the time to compose posts like this that are rich and broad. Let’s talk more!

- Chris