Qualification in Integrated Communication Design

Purpose:

The purpose of this qualification in Integrated Communication Design is to facilitate continuing professional development through the inculcation of a deep and systematic understanding of current Design thinking, practice, theory, and methodology in the field of Communication Design. This qualification also prepares students for Postgraduate study through the deepening of their knowledge and understanding of theories, methodologies and practices in Communication Design, as well as the development of their ability to formulate, undertake and resolve more complex theoretical and practice-related problems and tasks through the selection and use of interdisciplinary methods and techniques. The purpose of this qualification is to equip learners with advanced knowledge and skills that will enable them to integrate the traditional and new technologies and techniques to address communication design problems in a transdisciplinary teamwork environment, which will prosper in a much greater and successful employability.

Rationale:

Communication Design education in South Africa has historically been separated into Graphic Design, and Multimedia Studies, with Graphic Design, mainly directed at the traditional design and print disciplines, while multimedia focused on web design, 3D modelling, animation and motion design. This qualification has specific focus on erasing this differentiation and will bridge this divide. Communication Design in the South African and global context has undergone a fundamental shift in the past 20 years. It is moving from being perceived solely as aesthetic styling (the "make it pretty approach") to being directly associated with the social sciences, the business sciences and the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This change was brought about through a number of factors, that include:

• Markets are Moving Faster: faster adoption, successful customer acquisition, revenue growth, and competition are all signs of markets maturing faster. When markets mature faster, the function is increasingly assumed and no longer a core differentiator. As a result, an integrated design approach, especially at the concept origination stage, has become a key differentiator. Continuous Flux: the overlaps between business, people, and technology are increasing. Businesses are essentially run on technology platforms.

• People, even in rural areas, engage with technology in nearly every aspect of their lives. The overlapping of business and people is facilitated through networked local-to-globally distributed products and services.

• The so-called 'democratisation' of design dissemination platforms enables nearly anyone to develop and design artefacts that used to be the preserve of professional practitioners in the past. Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS) based approaches to design strategies are becoming essential to develop not just financially viable design solutions but also society-based and usable ones. These wider overlaps mean that changes in technology, people, or business have a substantial impact on viability, availability, and usability.

• Increased Complexity: the breadth and depth of our information access and Information and communications technology (ICT) tools are continually growing. Through Faster-Integrated Communication Design techniques that prioritise narratives and communicate key concepts, consensus is possible and more efficient decisions, products, and companies can function globally in unique markets and diverse social contexts.

An integrated design approach helps ensure communication in these contexts, by creating an appropriate and contextualized knowledge of the user. A learner in Integrated Communication Design will be equipped to integrate the traditional and new technologies and techniques to address communication design problems in a transdisciplinary teamwork environment, which will prosper in a much greater and successful employability in the formal sector at design agencies or in the informal sector as entrepreneurs.

The efficacy and value of promoting a transdisciplinary collaborative approach first are to understand its relation to multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary principles. The term multidisciplinary refers to a combination of diverse disciplines, which can be characterized as autonomous and separate learning components that focus on the same problem with no interaction. This allows for working in special areas of a discipline to gain specific discipline goals. In terms of team-based learning, here learners experience more sharing communication than collaboration to problem-solving, which proved a downfall.

As knowledge is drawn in from different disciplines, it remains confined by their fields with no integration of concepts or methods, which in turn restricts applied understanding. It is said that the outcome is the sum of the individual parts. In contrast, interdisciplinary learning is founded on the premise of collaboration, integration, and interaction between disciplines, to analyze, synthesize and contextualize the relations between various disciplines for a coherent understanding. To some extent, this is done to achieve interrogations of the boundaries of disciplines. It is said that the outcome is more than the sum of the parts.

On the other hand, transdisciplinary learning is concerned with the outcome of interdisciplinary learning, which is realized from student interaction and participation to gain knowledge and skill. Also, the term transdisciplinary suggests strategies to problems that cut across varied disciplines, which is concerned with the nature and interaction between them.

There exists a strive for a unity of knowledge relevant to a current world focus that includes external factors such as government, industries, non-government industries, socio-political, socio-cultural, socio-economical and business to form part of the field of inquiry to solve the problem at hand. Characteristic of a transdisciplinary field is the ability to transcend the disciplinary boundaries to develop a clear and ever-changing structure in the approach to problem-solving.

It moves beyond the limitations of communication to form a holistic, collaborative, transcendental, interactive, integrated approach. The need for a transdisciplinary approach is to best facilitate the development of knowledge from an empirical and practice-based framework within social conditions from a process of; comprehending the complexity of a problem, realize the Degree of diversity of world issues and the social reality as understood by the individual, to link ideas and influences, in order to develop practices to promote the best solution to any given problem.

The Communication Design industry is shaping into a collaborative practice environment where individuals are working together on projects and campaigns bringing their respective specialization to the project or campaign. This Qualification will make use of three elective specializations that also closely work together in industry. By combining these three specializations into one qualification as electives, it will enable the program group to closely replicate the 'teamwork' scenario that will characterize the future world of work in the communication design industry.