Success Story
Scholar of the Month
Jessica Barness
Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Design
College of Communication and Information
2012-present
The word 鈥渃ommunication鈥 likely makes you think of language, but November鈥檚 Scholar of the Month has spent her entire career researching design as a language of its own.
Across various media, Jessica Barness, an assistant professor in 5X社区鈥檚 School of Visual Communication Design, creates her own design-based research model that merges the making of artifacts with critical inquiry.
鈥淚鈥檓 interested in the multiple facets of design,鈥 she said. 鈥淒esign is social, and it鈥檚 a professional practice as well as a scholarly discipline. We鈥檙e designing artifacts and experiences, but we鈥檙e also building the new knowledge necessary to inform and lead those activities. Research through design can be used to better understand people, phenomena, theories or technologies. By approaching design as a sort of hybrid practice, our students learn how to adapt to future needs within our society.
