As designers, we develop images and visual-communication media with the aim that a viewer should be able to perceive and understand the messages we are pursuing with the design. Quite often, it is not possible to check in advance whether the goal of a communication has really been achieved. This workshop will show the possibilities and methods to explore a design from the perspective of a viewer (interview, survey, usability testing, and eye-tracking, etc.). Does the message of the poster get across? Is the diagram understood? Does the photograph arouse interest? Is the typography legible? In the course of this one-week workshop, questions that explore the viewers’ perception will be developed and tested, and different approaches to data collection will be presented and applied. We shall familiarize ourselves with different possibilities of data evaluation, discuss their advantages and limitations, and interpret the results with regard to our own design. This workshop is intended for people from design practice who would like to gain more knowledge about the possibilities of assessing the impact of their projects as well as for people who would like to get to know methods of design research in order to enter this field.
Claire Reymond is a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Digital Communication Environments, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW. She conducts research in the field of image production as well as the visual reception of images. In 2000, Claire Reymond completed her training as a graphic designer at the Basel School of Design and then worked as a designer for several years. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Master's degree in Iconic Research. At the Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, she obtained her doctorate in the field of Empirical Aesthetics. In 2019, Claire Reymond was a visiting researcher at metaLAB at Harvard University, USA.
Paloma Lòpez-Grüninger studied Fine Arts at the University of Granada, Spain, and Visual Communication at the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW, Switzerland. Between 2005 and 2008 she was a member of the Graduate School “Image and Knowledge” from eikones – NCCR Iconic Criticism. Her dissertation, with which she obtained her PhD from the University of Granada in 2011, looks into non-quantitative visualizations, particularly historic and current tree-diagrams in the domain of Biology, and the ways they construct and communicate their meaning. Her research interests are focused on information design and instructional design, by applying the methodology of practice-led iconic research in order to gain insights into the power and meaning of images through systematic image generation. Since 2012 she is a lecturer at the Master of Arts in Digital Communication Environments at the Basel Academy of Arts and Design FHNW, and coordinates the program since 2013.
Susanne Käser studied visual communication at the HGK Basel FHNW from 2002 to 2005. She worked for design offices in Basel and Zurich and since 2005 as an independent graphic designer. Since 2007 she has been in charge of the documentation assignment for the restructuring of the Novartis Campus at the Institute Digital Communication Environments, HGK Basel FHNW. From 2009 to 2011 she studied visual communication and iconic research at the HGK Basel FHNW. As part of her master's thesis "The Image and the Sense of Touch", Susanne Käser investigated possibilities for a holistic form of documentation. From 2012 to 2014 she was responsible for the research project "Campus+ new strategies for the documentation of urban change processes". Currently, she is working on and developing third-party funded projects in the areas of research and service and is mentoring the final phase of the BA Visual Communication and digital Spaces.
The Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE) offers workshops for students, educators and graphic designers.
The workshops afford insights into topical themes of visual communication for analogue and digital communication channels in a study programme reflecting the rich tradition of the Basel School of Design. Practical exercises with a high level of professionalism form the core of the workshops focus. Reflection as well as contextual knowledge will be conveyed by way of input sessions, allowing participants’ work to be judged within a contemporary, future-oriented context relevant to professional practice. The trinational Rhine River Valley is a unique cultural environment with easy access to France and Germany and to sites such as the Vitra Design Museum (G), the Isenheimer Alter (F), or Ronchamps (F). In Basel, the Fondation Beyeler, Tinguely Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Schaulager, and Museum of Contemporary Art are world-renowned. Besides its museums, Basel offers a rich mixture of cultural events.
Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE)
Through digital media and the democratisation of communication channels that goes hand in hand with it, the critical handling of their visual and interaction-based design has become decisively more important, because the social relevance of information and communication has thus fundamentally changed.
