The following video has been informed by our research and writing about new information environments. The class themes of embodiment, networking technology, and systems theory informed the idea for our proposed “History Happens Here” event. Our event will pull visitors out of the...

  Context A twenty-first century museum is often expected to extend beyond a physical location and engage with the local community. Museums that fulfill both roles tend to be people-centered, collaborative, forward-looking, and accessible from multiple entry points by all. Developments...

    Context Raleigh, NC, particularly the downtown area, is full of historical landmarks. However, the North Carolina Museum of History (NCMH) currently presents North Carolina history embodied in one, centralized locus, the NCMH building, and does not branch out into the...

    Context The North Carolina Museum of History is the guardian of the state’s history, heritage and material culture within local, regional, national and international contexts. Their mission is to “collect and preserve artifacts and other historical materials relating to the...

Contemporary designers are charged with designing for complex systems and dynamic platforms for diverse users. Designing for new information environments requires consideration of many concepts including, embodiment, systems theory and network technology. Antonio Damasio approaches...

                  Elbert Hubbard once said that “he who influences the thoughts of his times influences the times that follow.” This is especially true for designers in the 21st century. With design thinking spreading to multifarious...

Systems theory, network technology, and embodiment demonstrate three pearls valued by our generation. Though these theories were formalized before the Gen-Y generation of Millennials they are now the driving force of our zeitgeist. We, the designers of Gen-Y, come from a family of...

Across disciplines, complexity is the defining characteristic of the issues we currently face. Designers, however, are poised to serve as leaders because of our methods for managing complexity and uncertainty. Contemporary design problems typify complexity with numerous stakeholders and...

As designers, we recognize the powerful connection people have with the physical world—an insight we often tout as essential to our role as mediators between objects, processes, and spaces. Historically design has focused on individual solutions to isolated problems. However, the...

The introduction of the Internet transformed our relationship with information systems. Unlike any previous platform, it provides immediate access to vast amounts of information through a system capable of exponential growth and accumulation. Although access to information is at our...

Graphic designers have the difficult task of communicating a message through information environments. This task is made even more complicated when the unique abilities and motivations of humans—the viewers or audience—are added into the situation. Human beings are complex by nature...

In working through the topics of Networking Technologies, Embodiment, and Systems Theory, we found that there were many overarching themes for both the designer and audience behind each. In creating a new learning environment a careful consideration for the audience must be made, but...

As the possibilities and forms of information advance, the process of design must also adapt. Stepping back from the focus of an individual design major to consider the ideas of leaders in other fields is like getting feedback from an outsider on a current project. The outsider’s lack...

ESSAY Increasing in capabilities, digital technology is integrating into our lives at an extraordinary pace. We notice digital technology incorporated into our environments, affecting our experiences, and even shaping our decisions. The theories of new information environments can...

Information environments communicate with individuals through increasingly complex interactions. Custom predictions and recommendations are ubiquitous to internet shopping and entertainment, phones send location-based notifications, and objects are becoming smarter. To make these...

                    When an individual first enters an environment (whether digital or natural) the individual engages in a three part process which leads towards their cognitive understanding of that space. First, the individual...