FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

New York, New York, USA | 05.28.14

Isabel Meirelles, an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts and Gary Rozanc, an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County have been awarded funding from the 2013-14 AIGA DEC Design Faculty Research Grant program.

Professor Meirelles was awarded  $7,500 to support a research project that builds upon examinations she articulated in a book she published in 2013 titled “Interactive Information Visualizations Deconstructed.” She will examine how specific interactive communication mechanisms and techniques might best be deployed to resolve particular types of dynamic visualization challenges.

Professor Rozanc was awarded $2,500 to support a research project that will help identify and validate sets of core competencies that need to be effectively taught to students preparing to pursue careers as interaction and user experience designers. He will interview a select group of interaction design educators and professionals to determine, contextualize and prioritize these competencies.

The title of Professor Meirelles grant project is “Interactive Information Visualization Deconstructed;” the title of Professor Rozanc’s grant project is “Web Designer Competencies Inventory and Recommendations for Inclusion in Design Curricula.”

Each of these projects will operate over a two-year timespan.

At the culmination of the research, the results of these two projects will be posted to educators.aiga.org.

(Information provided by the steering committee of the AIGA Design Educators’ Community. Contact information: Eric Benson, Associate Professor, Graphic Design, The University of Illinois, ebenson@illinois.edu; Michael Gibson, Associate Professor, Communication Design, The University of North Texas, michael.gibson@unt.edu.)