David Small completed his Ph.D. at the MIT Media Laboratory in 1999, where his research focused on the display and manipulation of complex visual information. This was his third degree from MIT. He began his studies of dynamic typography in three dimensional landscapes as a student of Muriel Cooper, founder of the Visible Language Workshop, and later joined the Aesthetics and Computation Group under the direction of John Maeda. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Documenta11, the Centre Pompidou, and the Cooper-Hewitt. He is the principal and founder of Small Design Firm. Recently he also accepted the post of Associate Professor the MIT Media Laboratory where his research group, Design Ecology, examines the malleable design that is aware of and can seamlessly react to changing environments. This new approach to design will enhance understanding, enable creativity, and ease our interactions with the technological environment. While traditional design methods focus on single products and users, he believes that looking at the interplay between multiple people and multiple devices will yield significant results.
As the principal of Small Design Firm, I've been engaged in the creation of new and engaging experiences. At MIT, I am examining the underlying issues that relate to the design of information, experience, and interaction. New technology is rapidly upending traditional models of design practice. Future designers will need to incorporate a deep understanding of evolving technology and of human cognition to fully realize a future in which information is accessible, understandable and useful without overwhelming our ability to grasp it.
I've termed this approach Design Ecology. By this I mean the study of reactive design that seamlessly inhabits multiple devices and locations to provide a fluid and structured experience with changing information. Our relationship with information should be appropriately situated in both spatial and social contexts. Graduate student, Richard The will join me to give a brief overview of his current research.
