INFORMATION DESIGN INTRODUCTION WS26

Winter 2026–27 | 26-10-22 to 27-01-28

Lecturer: Kim Albrecht

Every other Thursday, 2:00–5:00 p.m., Room 3.07

This project course explores the theoretical and practical foundations of information design through lectures and hands-on exercises. Topics include understanding and critiquing data and information, the basics of mapping, career prospects, artistic and design perspectives, and fundamental concepts of information design.

The workshops in the field of information design take place every other Thursday. This introductory course can be freely combined with other courses offered in the field of information design.

Intro to Information Design

Every other Thursday, 2–5pm, Room 3.07

About the course

An Introduction to Information Design: What is information? Where does information design begin, and where does it end? How and in what media do we design information?

Every session has two parts. In the first hour I give a lecture. We then spend two hours working on a task related to the subject, and present the results at the end. Which means: No preparation needed, but bring your computer.

Dates

Date Session Task
22 Oct 2026 Introducing the programme — What is information? Why information design? —
29 Oct 2026 What is information design? Where does information design happen? Find a project from information design and present it to the group
12 Nov 2026 How does information design work? RAW Graphs, finding datasets (Kaggle)
26 Nov 2026 Kinds of information design: visualisation, sonification, physicalization, photovis, data cinema Blender & data
10 Dec 2026 What is information design built with? Prompting visualizations, HTML/JS and D3.js
21 Jan 2027 Open topic to be decided in December

What to bring

Your computer, every session. For 26 November you need Blender installed, for 10 December a code editor (Visual Studio Code).

Combining this with the other courses

Intro to Information Design is one of six blocks from which you put your semester together. How that works is described under structure.