89200 Design Communication

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.

UTS: Design, Architecture and Building: Design
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks

There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Anti-requisite(s): 89037 The Power of Design: to Improve Your Business Communications AND 89038 The Power of Design: to Make Impactful Charts and Infographics

Description

This subject gives students the opportunity to learn and apply the foundational principles of visual language and examines how these underpin the effective presentation of information. The first half of the subject outlines fundamental design principles and techniques and examines how these can be employed to create more meaningful and persuasive presentations. It draws heavily upon editorial design strategies and how these can be applied to increase the humanity, connection and influence of design and business communications. Students then progress to examine how these visual and storytelling principles pertain to the production of simple but effective data visualisations: charts and infographics. Through lectures, exercises and group critiques, students develop and iterate practical, problem-based design outcomes that build context, knowledge and conceptual thinking capacity.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1.	Develop design artefacts that have clearly identified rhetorical purposes
2.	Apply design principles and techniques in the creation of persuasive communications
3.	Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the work of oneself and others
4.	Contribute to studio discussion and, where relevant, group work

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)

This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:

Communicate using a wide range of media and techniques (C.1)
Lead constructive and compassionate design critiques (I.3)
Lead studio-based design processes to advance the professional practice of design (P.1)
Generate valid insights using qualitative research methods (R.1)

Contribution to the development of graduate attributes

The term CAPRI is used for the five Design, Architecture and Building faculty graduate attribute categories where:

C = communication and groupwork

A = attitudes and values

P = practical and professional

R = research and critique

I = innovation and creativity.

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs) are linked to these categories using codes (e.g. C-1, A-3, P-4, etc.).

Teaching and learning strategies

This subject is taught through a combination of hands-on workshops and online discussion and critique sessions.

Students are expected to commit 140 hours to each 6 credit point subject. This includes contact hours. Remaining hours are for self-directed study and the completion of preparatory activities and assessment tasks.

WORKSHOPS
Run over four full days (6 hours per day), these will combine short content delivery mini-lectures, with fast turn-around hands-on tasks, presentations and group feedback and critique.

ONLINE STUDIOS
Following on from the workshops, these online sessions will give you the opportunity to discuss questions about content with your peers and with an expert studio leader, to collaborate on activities directly relevant to key ideas and to receive critical feedback from your studio leader and peers. Your studio leader will facilitate discussion and offer expert insight and direction where needed, but as students you are primarily responsible for the mood of the studio session.

PREPARATORY ACTIVITIES
At times you will be asked to familiarise yourself with a written and visual texts that relate to the subject. Doing so will ensure you gain the most out of the workshops and studios.

PEER CRITIQUES
Learning to give and receive feedback is essential to your development. In feedback sessions you will ask your group to give you feedback on your ideas and visuals. Please consider feedback with an open mind and avoid being defensive; this is how we learn. You want feedback from as many different perspectives as possible.

Content (topics)

Design strategy
Essentials of visual language and visual rhetoric
Applying visual language princples for effective communication
Culture, concept, metaphor, emotion and cognitive load in effective design
Finding the story
Understanding audience
Gestalt principles of visual perception
A brief history of data visualisation
Key principles of effective data visualisation

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Effective Presentation

Intent:

Part A: Portfolio of Exercises

Throughout the subject, in studio and at home, you will undertake a series of small, fast turnaround exercises. These will reinforce the key principles of effective presentation and give you the opportunity to put your learning into practice. Your first assessment task in this course will be to collate these exercises into a portfolio annotated with short critical reflections. Details of the submission requirements and how to write effective annotations will be provided in studio and in handouts.

Part B: In Studio Presentation and Critical Reflection

Design and deliver a presentation on a topic of your choice. Draw from your own professional concerns or choose a general topic of interest to you. Your presentation will be assessed on how effectively it is structured, how effectively visual language is employed, and how effectively you verbally present.

Along with your presentation please submit a critical reflection (max 150-300 words) on your presentation. Articulate how it has applied the principles taught in this subject along with an analysis of its strengths and weaknesses

Objective(s):

This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

1, 2, 3 and 4

This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.):

C.1, I.3, P.1 and R.1

Type:

Presentation

Groupwork:

Individual

Weight:

50%

Criteria linkages:

Criteria	Weight (%)	SLOs	CILOs
Studio involvement and contribution to group work if relevant	5	4	I.3
Success in meeting the objectives of the portfolio exercises	25	1	P.1
Insightfulness of portfolio annotations and critical reflection	20	3	R.1
A presentation that clearly articulates its key point/argument and makes evident the broader significance of this point/argument by situating it within a larger narrative context	25	1	C.1
Effective application of core design principles	25	2	P.1

SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Assessment task 2: Visualisation

Intent:

Part A: Portfolio of Exercises

As with Task 1A, for this task you will produce a portfolio of the interactive, fast-turn around exercises that you have undertaken over the course of your learning. Each exercise should be accompanied by a short, critical annotation. The specifics of these will be detailed in studio and in handouts.

Part B: Produce a Visualisation

You will be tasked with producing a visualisation of either a supplied dataset or of a dataset of your choosing. This gives you the opportunity to draw from your own professional context or personal interests, or to provide a specific critical perspective on the dataset provided. You may use one of the tools covered in the course, produce the visualisation by hand, or any other method you deem appropriate. You may choose to present your visualisation as a stand-alone graphic, as a ‘suite’ of related visualisations that work together to explain or make visible a larger phenomenon, or as a single visualisation embedded within a larger explanatory context (for example, a presentation).

Along with your presentation please submit a critical reflection (max 150-300 words) on your visualisation. Articulate what the visualisation achieves, how it has applied the principles taught in this subject along with an analysis of its strengths and weaknesses.