Design as Communication

The Increasing Case for Literacy in Academia

Jon Kolko, Professor of Interaction and Industrial Design | Savannah College of Art and Design

Introduction: What is Literacy?

The National Institute for Literacy recognizes Literacy as " … ‘an individual's ability to read, write,
speak in English, compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on
the job, in the family of the individual and in society.’ This is a broader view of literacy than just an
individual's ability to read, the more traditional concept of literacy. As information and technology
have increasingly shaped our society, the skills we need to function successfully have gone
beyond simple reading and writing capabilities, and literacy has come to include the skills listed in
the current definition” [1]. This view of literacy illustrates a functional and career-centered
understanding of skills and techniques, and as applied to designers, can be viewed under even
broader terms. Industrial designers need to communicate effectively (quickly and accurately), and
the contents of these communications are often semantically associative and complicated in
nature. For example, a practicing industrial designer may be required to specify form, materials,
scale, and color; this may even be extended to include user interface hierarchy and “style”, a
description of a target audience or demographic, internal components or mechanisms, as well as
a rationale and justification for all of the listed details.

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