| User-centred design |
 There's no substitute
for the source
A user-centred designer operates straight from the original source, or the real contexts for communication, over and above any guru-like notion of their own expertise as the sole source of all answers.
Grounded by the factors that facilitate meaningful exchanges between users and producers, this collaborative position exponentially strengthens both the relevance and reach of communication in reality rather than only in theory. |
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| 360° of participation |
Where does a user-centred position leave a producer?
 For a user-centred designer, a client or producer’s best interests are nurtured well beyond ‘customer first’ rhetoric. Since users are the very reason producers have products or messages of mutual value in the first place, they naturally reside as both co-producers and valuable allies in ‘actual’ communication outcomes.
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| The central point has never been more pivotal |
Beware the client-, budget-, or worse, self-centred designer
While the self-centred designer poses the most obvious liability to a client's investment, perhaps more problematic is in fact the client-centred designer.
Well-intentioned client-centred designers tend to work from an insular wishlist of inside-looking-out idealisms, removed from the wider contexts (and therefore potential) of design projects. Client-centred designers take direction more than they take proactive initiative—which is otherwise the very heart, soul and purpose of the design process itself.
For a client-centred designer, the client is the sole centre of their universe, which by effect surpasses the wider contexts and ultimate accountabilities of the investment at hand.
This myopic approach is further compounded by the already close proximity between a client's familiar day-to-day foreground, their expertise and their product, brand or venture (removed from its wider social life and potential).
Paying no dividends for either party, the client-centred approach denies project outcomes of the all-important outside-looking-in perspective that otherwise anchors the more evolved user-centred designer. |
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| From communication 'targets' to allies |
Getting past the 'blah…' factor
Whenever communication takes place, people automatically ‘blah…’ out what they consider to be non-essential to them. The more ‘blah…’ moments, the more disparity between the intended message and its actual effect.
Information design maintains that mastery of your content or message is not the same as communicating it—that is,
making it accessible, relevant and valuable to others. Getting past ‘blah…’ and contextually understanding why it occurs is central to information design. |
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Free publication |
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Return to sender |
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 Enquire now to receive your complimentary copy of Return to sender – The communicator’s guide to navigating participatory information landscapes and markets that talk back... Click here |
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| Multidisciplinary partner network |
| Flexible-base operation |
Prioritising the in situ contexts for communication projects, Michelle's consultancy model enables her to fully realise a working structure that best serves a genuine user-centred orientation.
Whether working onsite with project stakeholders or conducting research in the field, her commitment to a flexible rather than fixed-based operation affords:
- greater sensitivity towards localised project contexts
- greater multidisciplinary collaboration and closer working relationships through global mobility, and
- greater access to appropriate expertise and resources for the specific demands of projects.
To get involved in the Glocal Network enquire now |
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| FAQ |
How is information design different to general graphic design or branding?
Rather than focusing on surface and perception, information design is concerned with the substance, real time function and accountability of a piece
of communication from a user-centred point of view.
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| An evolved complement to branding |
Participation is the new consumption
Like never before, many of us are now as much senders as we are receivers in the mainstream communication equation—even in the face of traditionally unchallenged sources of information. Rather than competing for monopolies on attention,
expanding opportunities to participate in this grand dialogue has become the defining measure of effective communications.
Despite this, conventional approaches still operate from the dated assumption that information can be simply ‘transferred’ from those who produce communications to those who are seen as compliantly consuming them for a given agenda.
 Conversely, information design embraces and unlocks participation from the inside out, stabilising and enriching communication outcomes for multiple stakeholders.
We often understand
(and therefore advocate) things relative to how much
we can participate in them.
For information design, advocates are earned through frameworks of participation rather than absolute control. This approach offers an evolved and more sustainable alternative to over-strategised forms of persuasion or ‘attention management’. |
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