International Institute for Information Design

International Institute for Information Design
Name	International Institute for Information Design
Formation	1991
Type	Nonprofit organization
Headquarters	Vienna, Austria
Region served	International
Language	English
Leader title	President

International Institute for Information Design is an international nonprofit organization focused on visual communication, information architecture, and user-centered design. It engages practitioners, scholars, and institutions in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Australasia through conferences, publications, and collaborative projects. The institute operates at the intersection of graphic design, cognitive psychology, human-computer interaction, and public policy, partnering with museums, universities, and professional bodies.

History

Founded in 1991, the institute grew alongside developments in digital media, aligning with organizations such as International Council of Museums, European Commission, UNESCO, World Health Organization, and United Nations Development Programme. Early collaborations involved design schools like Royal College of Art, University of the Arts London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aalto University, and Politecnico di Milano. It convened conferences that attracted participants from institutions including Stanford University, Harvard University, Yale University, Pratt Institute, Rhode Island School of Design, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, University of Tokyo, Tsinghua University, National University of Singapore, University of Sydney, and University of São Paulo. Over time, the institute worked with standards bodies such as International Organization for Standardization, European Telecommunications Standards Institute, World Wide Web Consortium, and Internet Engineering Task Force, and engaged with corporations and NGOs including IBM, Microsoft, Apple Inc., Google, Adobe Systems, SAP SE, Siemens, Bosch, Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Greenpeace.

Mission and Objectives

The institute's mission emphasizes improving public information quality and accessibility, aligning with initiatives by European Parliament, Council of Europe, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank, and African Development Bank. Objectives include advancing best practices referenced by professional societies such as Association of Registered Graphic Designers, British Design Council, American Institute of Graphic Arts, International Association of Business Communicators, and Interaction Design Association. It seeks to influence standards used by Federal Aviation Administration, European Space Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The institute promotes accessibility in line with directives from European Disability Forum, International Labour Organization, and United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Programs and Activities

Programs span conferences, workshops, certification, and exhibitions, often hosted with partners like Vienna Museum, Design Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Cooper Hewitt, Centre Pompidou, Vitra Design Museum, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Tate Modern, Louvre, and British Museum. Activities include summer schools alongside Coursera, edX, FutureLearn, and research collaborations with Max Planck Society, Fraunhofer Society, CNRS, CERN, Helmholtz Association, and Leibniz Association. The institute runs mentorship and internship programs connected to firms such as IDEO, Frog Design, Pentagram, Landor Associates, Sagmeister & Walsh, and Meta Platforms. It organizes special projects with civic bodies like City of Vienna, Municipality of Barcelona, City of New York, Government of Canada, Australian Government, Brazilian Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Education (Japan), and Swiss Federal Office of Culture.

Publications and Research

The institute publishes journals, reports, and guidelines cited alongside periodicals like Design Issues, Information Design Journal, Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and Human–Computer Interaction. Research topics intersect with work by scholars from Norbert Wiener, Donald Norman, Edward Tufte, Herbert Simon, and institutions such as MIT Media Lab, Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, UC Berkeley Center for New Media, SRI International, and Bell Labs. Publications address case studies involving European Medicines Agency, United Nations Children’s Fund, World Food Programme, International Committee of the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Ford Foundation.

Membership and Governance

Membership comprises individual designers, academics, and institutional members drawn from organizations like Royal Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Royal Geographical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Association for Computing Machinery, British Computer Society, Society for Technical Communication, Institute of Information Scientists, and Design Management Institute. Governance involves a board with representatives from universities and cultural institutions such as University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, ETH Zurich, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Seoul National University, University of Toronto, McGill University, University of British Columbia, and University of Melbourne.

Awards and Recognition

The institute administers awards and prizes modeled after honors like the AIGA Medal, Red Dot Design Award, Compasso d'Oro, Design of the Year, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Pritzker Architecture Prize, Turner Prize, Pulitzer Prize, and Turing Award. Recipients have included professionals and projects formerly recognized by Praemium Imperiale, National Design Awards (United States), Prince Philip Designers Prize, BAFTA, Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, and Nobel Peace Prize laureates involved in design activism. Award ceremonies have been co-hosted with institutions such as European Cultural Foundation, Goethe-Institut, British Council, Alliance Française, and Japan Foundation.

Partnerships and Outreach

Outreach includes partnerships with academic consortia and networks like Erasmus Programme, European University Association, Universitas 21, Association of Commonwealth Universities, Global Development Network, and Open Knowledge Foundation. Collaborative initiatives have linked the institute to projects with Mozilla Foundation, Wikipedia, The New York Times Company, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera, NPR, Reuters, Bloomberg L.P., The Guardian, and Le Monde. The institute also engages with cultural events such as Venice Biennale, Milan Design Week, London Design Festival, SXSW, TED Conference, and World Economic Forum summits.

Category:Design organizations