As anyone in the design field knows, certifications are rare. Sure, you can be Adobe certified, Lynda training certified, or any other type of know-thy-software certified, but extended design class certified like what engineers, nurses, and managers go through? With all those neat letters to put behind their name? Not really a thing for us artists.
So when I got an email about AIGA offering a workshop- just one workshop on a Saturday, to learn Cognitive-based Information Design (or CID) with certification- I was skeptical. However, the description just aligned with my medical art too much- "CID, Cognitive-based Information design, is a way of presenting information that parallels how the brain actually processes information." Essentially, it's the practice of presenting information that so learners and users can use and learn from it. What is more important to a medical artist???
On a cold Saturday in November, I found myself getting up early and driving to the UWM School of Continuing Education campus downtown. A group of 8 or 9 designers gathered in a classroom with Dr. Lou Tetlan, the mastermind behind CID. She has a very diverse background, with degrees in Fine Art, Linguistics, Business, Education, and extensive research in neuroradiology. For three hours she shared with us how to present information in a way that engages the user, builds accurate knowledge, and is easy to recall. She shared with us the shocking statistic that only 13% of U.S. adults are literate*. This literacy includes the ability to analyze information and learn from it, something which can be extremely difficult, or extremely easy, depending on the way the information is presented.
Knowing how to present information clearly is incredibly important in every field, but particularly in healthcare. Researchers, especially close to their research, easily lose sight of how easy it is to comprehend their work, and oftentimes present it in a confusing manner. Medical artists, with their backgrounds in graphic design, illustration, and sculpting aid in communicating these often complex topics visually. Dr. Tetlan has laid out a structure for artists, researchers, and designers to follow that makes it easy for the brain to digest and learn the information presented. A few of her key ideas included presenting information in chunks of 2-7, for .5-3 seconds each, using sans serif font for easier brain processing, and use shorter lines for text. In fact, this blog post, if read on a laptop or desktop, should probably be divided into two columns!
After the workshop we were given the opportunity to get certified as CID designers. We met with Dr. Tetlan individually 3 times over the course of 2 weeks and she gave us exercises to practice our CID skills. Each time we came back with revisions, she pointed out more ways that we could CID-ify the document even further. Below is an example of a document that I worked on. (I didn't have time to create original illustrations, so you'll have to excuse the stock art).
After we passed the certification, we were given the opportunity to sit in with Dr. Tetlan on one of her CID presentations to a group of manufacturing executives in Wisconsin. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting these men and women who sincerely wished to communicate clearer emails, and even wished to restructure their policy binders. Many of the concepts that I picked up on quickly due to my training as a graphic designer were difficult for them to pick out, and it was eye-opening how important CID is, and how difficult to achieve.
* National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL): 87% of U.S. adults over age 15 are below proficient in literacy ability. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2014). The Condition of Education 2014 (NCES 2014-083).
