Modes of Wonder: Layers of Discovery in Information Design (TBD)

Summary of Dissertation

This research is motivated by the lack of framework that allows designers to address issues of emotion not only in understanding various communicative ways but also in creating design strategies in the field of information design. Emotion has emerged as an important theme in the last two decades in the contemporary discussion of design, yet there is no framework that enables information designers to discuss the relationship of emotion to information, especially considering the communicative situation where the information is in use.

This dissertation proposes modes of wonder as a descriptive framework with which a designer can understand the way the audience can make discovery in different kinds of communicative situation. This framework is based on the premise that information as a medium that serves in the context of human action and wonder as the principle of communication, employing its theoretical basis on the strategies of the rhetorical inquiry.

In this work, four thematic variations of wonder (wonder, astonishment, amazement, sublime) are presented in examining different ways that we experience things around us. Each mode can be related to what it is we discover in a situation; 1) the existence of information that differentiates from others 2) construction of information in a novel and unexpected way 3) the way information is connected to an audience in the situation of use 4) a transcendent idea that elevates a common experience into a spiritual one.

Modes of wonder are not simply kinds of discovery that are distinguished one another; they are the layers of experience that can articulate the way one creates an experience with information. This research will contribute to design research and education in that it provides a framework that helps to understand and analyze an emotional experience with information.

Outline of Chapters

Problems in Information and Emotion

Emotion has emerged as a new theme in design since the mid-1990s; however, there has been little discussion of emotion in information design. Some information designers have begun to recognize that the role of emotion is significant in creating an effective communication beyond the issues of efficiency and usability, yet for the most part the theme of emotion has not been fully investigated in information design.

In this context, many information designers conceive that information and emotion are separate things. But is emotion necessarily harmful in making information design products more functional or effective? What would be the problem if information and emotion are treated separate? What would be the consequences of information design products that don’t have any emotional qualities?

Hypothesis: Information Design as the Creation of Inquiry into a Situation

In order to further investigate the relationship between information and emotion, I examine definitions of information. Currently existing definitions of information are inadequate to discuss the relation between information and emotion. Based on my initial hypothesis that information and emotion are in a situation, information should be regarded as medium that serves in the context of human action while emotion functions as a principle of communication. This also leads me to consider information design as the creation of an inquiry into a situation, where forms arise from, in response to, issues that are qualified by the context in which they are experienced. Therefore, forms of information should be created by its uses and purposes of the information in the situation.

Theme: Wonder and the Experience of Discovery

Among different kinds of communicative situations, my thesis focuses on the theme of wonder by analyzing examples of information presentation. What would it mean presenting information where wonder figures into different kinds of inquiry as well as wonder functions as principle of communication? The reason why I have chosen the theme of wonder is that wonder leads to an experience of discovery in information communication. Wonder is elicited when we discover something novel or unexpected. Or wonder leads people to discover things that are unknown to known. Depending on the way information is communicated, people can discover things, create different meanings, make connections or even recognize values in a situation where different senses of wonder arise as well.

In Chapter 3, I introduce variations of the theme of wonder as four senses of wonder—wonder, astonishment, amazement, and sublime—by illustrating the way each sense of wonder is elicited in relation to different ways of presenting information. For example, one feels astonished when he finds some materials or elements that are novel or unexpected in an information presentation. In contrast, amazement arises as one discovers the connection between individual elements. Looking into different nature of wonder will be useful to locate different ways of making discovery when the audience interacts and experiences the information communication.experiences the information communication.

Methodology: Constituents of Information Design

Moving onto Chapter 4, I turn to the designers' perspective in creating ways of communication of information. How should designers present information in order to lead people to make things are unknown to known? How is this different from presenting information, which makes things known or creates a new meaning out of already known? What is the sense of wonder associated in each communicative situation? I begin this chapter by identifying the constitution of information presentation: information elements, point of view, narrative, and principle. These constituents will provide a methodological strategy to describe, analyze and evaluate information design products. By analyzing a series of information design products in chapters followed, issues that are related to each constituent are discussed in detail.