The future of visual communication design is almost invisible or why skills in visual aesthetics are important to service design

Over the past 20 years there has been an increase in post-secondary visual communication education in Australia while the growth of the industry itself has been low, meaning an increasing number of graduates compete for a limited pool of jobs . The use of visualisation in human centered and service design approaches provides alternative employment opportunities for these graduates. This paper presents a case study of a visual communication honors research project that is indicative of those opportunities and the potential benefits of having highly skilled visual practitioners involved in human centered and service design processes. Furthermore, we argue that a consideration of the aesthetics of the visualisation methods used in this context is essential and that visual aesthetics should be a significant part of the service design skillset.