>Industry comment
>Developments in design practice/education
>Visual layout within application dialogue boxes

- an article by triggercommunication

>Major upheavals in graphic design
>The pace of change
>The proximity of change
>Interactivity
>Narrative structure
>The marks we make

In the number of years prior to, and since the arrival of multimedia in the early 1990's, we have seen major upheavals in graphic design and media related industries.
New territories are being formed and individual disciplines struggle to define their place in the new media-landscape.
Since the coining of the phrase "graphic designer", in the early 1920's, numerous technical developments have influenced the practice of graphic design, e.g.:
1930's: Four colour offset printing
1940's: Photo-typesetting
1960's: Photocopying
1970's: Laser-typesetting
1980's: Desktop publishing.

The pace of change in the past has allowed both educational curricula and industry to adopt relevant new technologies and adapt working methods to realise the potential of successive developments.
As the computer moved to the centre of graphic design practice, so too did certain principles of the computer industry, the most influential of which is Moore's Law.
Moore's law, as defined by Gordon Moore of Intel in 1965, states that the data capacity of microchips doubles every year.
Apple computers 1999 marketing strategy truthfully (if enthusiastically) informed us that their latest graphic design "powerhouse" was classed as military equipment by the US Government - who denied license to export to certain countries.
Vast increases in computing power pushed the computer into most areas of creative endeavour an on toward media convergence and the birth of the new digital medium.

Recent design related developments have not occurred "out there" in the industry, but in the design studio - at the designers desk(top).
Some significant developments in the area in the past decade include:

• Typeface Design Software
• Digital documents and distributions Systems
• Digital audio production
• Digital video and still image manipulation
• Multimedia authoring software
• The World Wide Web and related technologies.

The component parts of multimedia are; type, image, audio and video - but the defining characteristic is interactivity. Interactivity can be said to be the relationship between a users input and the systems response. This can range from constant input / constant feedback - as in a video game - down to the very limited interactivity of a digital slideshow where options are limited to; Forward, Back and Quit.
Higher levels of interactivity are closer to the ways that people actually work, that is exploration, examination and cross-referencing.
Graphic Designers need to ask questions, interpret answers, react and ask again.
How do people interact with multimedia products?
What draws their attention?
What maintains it?
Outside of the environment of text on printed page - how to readers, read?

The dominant narrative structure of pre digital media is linear in nature. Digital media permit, possibly demand, the use of multi-linear and non-linear narrative structures.
Graphic designers now work with other professionals to design appropriate information structures. To discover what is technically possible, then test it . And to create virtual architectures within which the reader/user, can navigate.
The designer should be capable of envisioning open architectures also, that can exist on the internet, where non-linearity prevails.

The marks we make are no longer fixed, but are fleeting and mutable. They can move and make noise. Increasingly, the marks we make on the Internet can even have a basic level of intelligence: Items delivered via the internet may link to related information. The time and date at the users location - as well as system and details - can be read from the users computer.
If the person has visited before, the system can present various items, based on previously entered information and preferences.
In the authors opinion, the most important recent development in graphic design, is the increasing pace of change in the field of 'communications'.
The practice of graphic design has expanded. The challenge for design education is not only to deliver broad, and rich curricula, but to prepare the student for the ever-changing industry they've chosen to enter - and to embue them with the drive to continue learning.