Judith A. Moldenhauer is Associate Professor of Art, Graphic Design, in the James Person Duffy Department of Art and History at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She was Interim Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Research in the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts 2011-2015.
Her professional work has included designs for several exhibitions at the Detroit Institute of Arts and many non-profit organizations. Her research and work in information design focuses on healthcare and the health sciences, emphasizing that the appearance and functionality of any information design must be based on how people need to use it. She creates effective user-centered design is the personalization of information through the use of storytelling. By weaving the “story” of the information and the “story” of those who will use it, a new story (the design) is created through which people can make the information their own. The perspective and experiences, both personal and cultural, of those who will interact with a design serves as a guide to taking complex data and transforming it into visual form. The result is a design that focuses on what a person is to do with the information (find, understand, use) – activities that can be tested and evaluated.
Her work has included the design of educational materials for Healthy Start, a U.S. government program to reduce high infant mortality. She collaborated with nursing colleagues to design prototype print and digital materials for a doula intervention for postpartum depression and maternal responsiveness that included a mobile app through which new mothers can recognize the signs and seek help for perinatal depression. She is a Co-Investigator for the WSU NIH BEST (Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training) program to help biomedical doctoral students explore a variety of career paths. She is also a member of the D•VERSE team (Detroit Integrated Vision for Environmental Research thorough Science and Engagement) at WSU and co-investigator for two projects to design print and digital communication materials that focus on engaging participants as “citizen scientists”: 1) the environmental and health effects of petroleum (pet)coke on a southwest Detroit neighborhood and 2) airborne particulates monitoring with Detroit asthmatic teens. She was the WSU PI for two U.S. Department of Education FIPSE (Funding for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education) grants: “Seeing the Body Elsewise: Connecting the Humanities and the Health Sciences” and “Development of International Core Competencies and Student and Faculty Exchange in Information Design.”
She has presented several papers for international conferences and authored journal articles on information design and design education. She has received many national and international design awards and honors in recognition of her work and scholarship including a Fulbright scholarship to Sweden and appointment as a Life Fellow in the Communication Research Institute in Australia.
She is a member of several professional organizations including the Institute for Information Design, AIGA, Design Research Society, the College Art Association, and the WSU Wireless Health Initiative.
Click to download: JM_CV_2016