Information Systems as a Reference Discipline for Visual Design

Abstract

This paper proposes that the Information Systems (IS) discipline can serve as a reference discipline for the Visual Design discipline and vice versa. To this end, this work tries to offer a pluralistic framework of visual design systems (VSD) where the primary focus is on how the Visual Design discipline utilizes the intellectual know-how of IS concerning systems of development. Because visual design is part of the aesthetic paradigm where interpretivism rules and IS is contained in the positivist paradigm, we employ a multi-paradigm approach to bridge these two paradigms and their constituent disciplines. The implications of VSD are discussed in the remainder of this paper.