BUILDING INFORMATION DESIGN

Mapping Out Information Graphics

Evaluate Content: Develop research and know your data!

Identify Audience: What are there information concerns and needs? How will they use this information?

Be a Critical Thinker: Evaluate your work from the perspective of your “viewer/reader”.


Information Design Principles

Consistency: Are the styles consistent throughout the types of information?

Proximity: Pay attention to space and relationship of data.

Chunking: Related elements are grouped together.

Hierarchy: Does the most important information “feel” the most important?

Structure: Is the information sequenced in a way that makes sense?

Balance and Eyeflow: Clear starting and stopping points.

Clarity: Is the information understandable? Is it legible?


Categorizing Information

Acronym LATCH (by Richard Saul Wurman)

Location
Alphabet
Time
Category
Hierachy

Designing to Understand Content

—Present what readers NEED, not everything you have – EDIT!

—Develop useful and meaningful content

—Use language and reading levels appropriate to audience

—Present content in order that the reader needs to understand. Know how to control hierarchy.

Design Elements that Control Usability

—Set type for purpose of understanding (not emotion)

—Plan space between and around elements (use grid)

—USE color, line and shape as an information tool to:

Codify, show similarities, show differences, help users to find things (navigate), encourage readers to move through information, to emphasize something (hierarchy), to play something down and to convey meaning.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Information
(From The Practical Guide to Information Design, by Ronnie Lipton)

Quantitative displays show measurements and quantities. They include:

—charts and graphs, inlcuding pie charts

—maps, because they imply measured distance between geographical points.

Qualitative displays show processes and relationships among people and catagories. They include:

—organizational and flow charts, and family trees

—process diagrams, such as the illustration that identifies the various parts of a piece of equipment in its operations manual

All diagrams share the need to answer a primary question for the reader

Using Color in a Meaningful Way
(From The Practical Guide to Information Design, by Ronnie Lipton)

Use color to:

—show differences

—show similarities

—help readers find things

—encourage readers to move through information

—help readers recall information

—emphasize something

—play something down

—convey meanings—inherent, assigned, or both