Information Design Course

Lesson 1 • Principles of Effective Communication

Covers signal-to-noise ratio, clarity, and accuracy as foundational communication goals. Connects these principles to every design decision made later in the course.

Lesson 2 • Human Perception and Cognition

Introduces how the human visual system processes information, including pre-attentive attributes and working memory limits. Explains why perception science drives design choices.

Lesson 3 • Ethics and Responsibility in Design

Addresses misleading visuals, bias in data representation, and designer accountability. Sets an ethical baseline that students apply throughout the course.

Lesson 1 • Types of Data and Variables

Distinguishes nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio data and explains how each type constrains visual encoding options. Directly informs chart and graphic selection.

Lesson 2 • Data Cleaning and Preparation

Covers identifying missing values, outliers, and inconsistencies, then correcting them. Clean data is a prerequisite for accurate visual output.

Lesson 3 • Descriptive Statistics for Designers

Teaches mean, median, distribution, and correlation as tools for understanding data before designing. Prevents misrepresentation caused by statistical misunderstanding.

Lesson 4 • Structuring Data for Visualization

Explains tidy data principles, wide versus long formats, and hierarchical structures. Proper structure is required before any chart or diagram can be built.

Lesson 1 • Trend and Time-Series Charts

Covers line charts, area charts, and slope graphs for showing change over time. Emphasizes axis scaling and time granularity decisions.

Lesson 2 • Comparison and Ranking Charts

Teaches bar, column, dot plot, and lollipop charts for comparing discrete categories. Students practice choosing and constructing the right comparison form.

Lesson 3 • Visual Encoding Channels

Covers position, length, area, colour, shape, and angle as encoding channels ranked by perceptual accuracy. Provides the decision logic for all chart-building work.

Lesson 4 • Relationship and Correlation Charts

Introduces scatter plots, bubble charts, and heatmaps for showing relationships between variables. Connects encoding choices to statistical meaning.

Lesson 1 • Accessibility and Colour Vision

Addresses colour blindness types, contrast ratios, and tools for testing palette accessibility. Ensures designs are usable by the widest possible audience.

Lesson 2 • Typography for Information Design

Covers typeface selection, hierarchy, legibility, and pairing for charts, dashboards, and reports. Typography directly affects how quickly readers extract meaning.

Lesson 3 • Functional Colour in Data Visualization

Teaches sequential, diverging, and categorical colour palettes and their correct use cases. Prevents common errors like using rainbow scales for continuous data.

Lesson 4 • Integrating Colour and Type Systems

Teaches building a unified visual language by combining colour palettes with typographic systems. Produces consistent, professional design outputs across a project.

Lesson 1 • Grid Systems and Alignment

Introduces column grids, modular grids, and alignment rules for organising visual elements. Grids create the structural consistency that makes layouts feel professional.

Lesson 2 • Whitespace and Visual Breathing Room

Covers active and passive whitespace, margins, padding, and their effect on comprehension. Proper whitespace reduces cognitive load and improves reading speed.

Lesson 3 • Designing for Multiple Formats

Addresses layout adaptation for print, screen, and presentation contexts with different constraints. Students learn to reformat a single design for varied delivery channels.

Lesson 1 • Story Structures for Data

Introduces narrative frameworks—setup, conflict, resolution—adapted for data communication. Provides a repeatable structure for any data story.

Lesson 2 • Sequencing Visuals in a Narrative

Explains how to order charts and graphics to build understanding progressively across a report or presentation. Sequence determines whether the audience follows the argument.

Lesson 3 • Audience Analysis and Framing

Covers identifying audience knowledge level, goals, and emotional context to frame data appropriately. Framing decisions shape which insights are surfaced and how.

Lesson 4 • Avoiding Misleading Narratives

Identifies cherry-picking, misleading baselines, and selective framing as narrative integrity risks. Students learn to self-audit stories for unintentional or deliberate distortion.

Lesson 1 • Prototyping Interactive Experiences

Introduces low-fidelity wireframing and high-fidelity prototyping workflows for interactive data products. Prototypes allow testing before costly development begins.

Lesson 2 • Interactivity Patterns for Data

Teaches filtering, zooming, brushing, tooltips, and drill-down as standard data interaction patterns. Each pattern is matched to specific analytical tasks.

Lesson 3 • Designing Dashboards

Covers dashboard layout, KPI placement, chart selection, and information hierarchy for operational and analytical dashboards. Dashboards are the most common interactive deliverable.

Lesson 4 • Accessibility in Digital Interfaces

Addresses keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and focus management for interactive data products. Accessibility compliance is a professional and ethical requirement.

Lesson 1 • Iterative Design and Refinement

Covers rapid iteration cycles, version control for design files, and documenting design rationale. Iteration transforms adequate designs into excellent ones.

Lesson 2 • Strategic Design Decision-Making

Addresses balancing stakeholder constraints, technical limitations, and audience needs in high-stakes design decisions. Strategy elevates design from execution to leadership.

Lesson 3 • Measuring Design Effectiveness

Introduces usability testing, comprehension testing, and eye-tracking as methods for evaluating whether a design achieves its communication goal.

Lesson 4 • Building a Professional Portfolio

Guides students in selecting, framing, and presenting case studies that demonstrate mastery across the full design process. A strong portfolio is the primary career asset.