Knowledge Design

ABSTRACT The field of graphic design has much to offer to the emerging area referred to as knowledge design. Graphic designers have a well-developed understanding of the spatial organization of information and user experience, the rhetorical force of display, and other fundamentals of visual communication. But knowledge design requires additional analytic and technical skills. Many of these involve understanding the way content is modeled by the design of data systems, as well as the ways functionality has to be structured into a design. But knowledge design goes beyond user experience since it takes into account every aspect of the full life cycle of a digital project from analysis of its components to the information architecture and structure, to understanding standards and metadata, network protocols, intellectual property issues, interoperability and sustainability. This article argues that curriculum development in this field would benefit from the participation of graphic designers.