Digital Design and Intimacy
As the world turns to digital, graphic design and more importantly web design will play a huge role in shaping the way users consume digital information. Graphic design involves only the creation of graphics, while web design involves the entire process of understanding and shaping a user’s experience, organizing content, and presenting information in the most efficient and appealing way possible. The future of digital design is unlimited, because the mediums on which to design are unlimited and quickly evolving, as is the development technology.
When the Internet first appeared, the only digital design platform was a bulky computer. Now designers have to find the best solution for users on computers of all sizes, as well as iPads and smartphones. In 10 years, designers might be designing for a computer that you can fold into a square and keep in the pocket of your purse. As the mediums and technology change, design will have to adapt just as quickly, and the need for educated design will increase.
What happens to the sensual experience? Will people still want the sensory experience that print graphic design provides?
As a purely digital designer, I think the complaint that sensual experience is dying with print is unfounded. Technology innovators have already shown that nearly anything is possible, and it seems inevitable that the print platforms that people love, like magazines and books, can be replicated in a digital format. People dislike the Kindle because they can’t feel the paper of a book, or smell the musty pages. Why can’t a book with pages that digitally publish text be a possibility? Why can’t we have a “print” magazine that automatically updates content every week?
Does print design create a more intimate experience than digital design? If so, why? How? Why is that valuable?
I hear people say that, but I’m not entirely sure what it means. As a 24-year old that works on a two-monitor set-up at work, checks her email on her iPhone on the way home, and then relaxes in the evenings watching Hulu on her laptop, I’m so immersed in digital that it seems intimate to me. It touches everything I do – what could be more intimate than that?
What new skills do today’s graphic designers need?
When a newspaper is online, a static graphic isn’t enough. Make that graphic move!
Are kids racking up the failed test scores in Chicago Public Schools? Don’t just show a graph of this year, show an interactive map of which wards have the worst test scores. Have a graph where each bar increases or decreases every year as you click a + or – through the years. There’s so many new ways to present the news with the Internet, it’s inexcusable to just have a static graphic and not explore new storytelling methods.
