Information Design Journal - Volume 6, Issue 3, 1990

One challenge for graphic designers is to provide visual structures that efficiently organize what is seen on the computer screen when many users work on the same display. This paper reports work on such a project.The visual interface we describe is a part of the Prep Editor, an experimental environment for collaborative writing. We show how a graphic interface with a simple organizing structure can help collaboration by reducing screen clutter and focusing end-user tasks efficiently. The Prep Editor uses the metaphor of a column to support a variety of collaborative tasks. We believe that a columnar visual structure provides a comprehensible interaction mechanism to support collaborations in general, beyond the limited intent of this project.Graphic design for the Prep Editor is influenced by methods of page layout that have supported collaborations in the past, seen in a type of medieval manuscript known as a glossed bible. Glosses promoted orderly access to complex information and provided tools for scholars to organize, annotate, and cross-refer between different kinds of information, working alone or in concert with others.

As a means of understanding and evaluating typographic documents as objects of design and instances of language in use, a descriptive and analytical framework is put forth. Identified as 'constructive factors' are formal characteristics of text and format, requirements of production and use, and contextual variables. The ways in which these factors might interrelate is examined briefly, and it is suggested that the most typical dynamic is that in which the stylistic requirement of idiomatically appropriate form is largely determined by a document's situational context. Typographic competency is then defined as the ability to match formal idiom to situation and to further model the idiom in response to situational specifics.

In this article the author first outlines how difficulties in the design, layout, and oral presentation of tabular and diagrammatic materials on tape may interact with the experience and ability of the listener to form sources of difficulty in the comprehension of such information by the visually handicapped, and then provides some suggestions concerning the presentation of such features in tape-recorded materials.

This review of Edward Tufte's second book about the graphic presentation of information focusses on concepts deployed and upon ideals. Key ideas are discussed and in some cases (the 'graphic duck' and 'complexity') are followed through to their use in Robert Venturi's writings. The fundamental impulse of Tufte's work is the wish to let information be envisioned: to be represented in a way that is true to its complex nature. This means raising it above the minimum levels of provision that have been usual in information design. This impulse is present in the design and material substance of Tufte's books, as well as in the literal content of their text and images. In conclusion, some historical placing of these books is considered.

Some DTP users want typographic tuition not only to improve design skills but also to help them deal with 'clients' who now want to control layout and design decisions. Other users may lack motivation to study because they feel they can achieve results that satisfy themselves and their 'clients' without typographic knowledge. Selected type tutorial books are examined and judged to ignore the motivated learner's particular need for methods of working that synthesize the elements of typography with the tasks they have to perform. For other potential learners, they do not provide the missing motivation. Two recent tutorial books use, respectively, a graphically motivating approach and a synthetic, systematic approach. The latter is judged not only to meet motivated learners' needs but also to provide the elements of an approach through which 'clients', including writers, could begin to realise DTP'S potential for integrating the composition of text and its display on the page.