Information Design Journal - Volume 9, Issue 2-3, 1998

When designed well, user guides and related documentation can reduce significantly the costs of manufacturing, operating and maintaining products. Diagrams can be key features of such informational material, but, until recently, they have not been the subject of serious study. Diagrams are powerful information resources: this power arises from the use of graphic metaphor, which can also cause problems of interpretation. A taxonomy is presented of the fundamental design variables available when creating diagrams. User guides, and the diagrams they contain, are integral to products, and their development is the business of information designers. The scope of information design has been extended enormously now that diagrams may be animated, interactive and distributed digitally around the globe. The multimedia technical documentation system developed at Coventry University, called the 'cinegram', is outlined, and the re-utilisation of three-dimensional CAD data for instructional purposes at Rolls-Royce Aerospace is described. Future research is signalled, including the possibilities for hybrid 2-D and 3-D interactive diagrammatic documents.

Information design has traditionally attempted to develop its methods by creating logical sequences and structures to organize both the content and visual presentation of information. Creating clusters, categories, sequences and hierarchies, designers have achieved highly efficient ways of presenting complex information. The modernistic belief in universal s is today reinforced by notions of globalization fostered by end of the century capitalism. Nevertheless, it is increasingly evident that cognitive styles vary from people to people, and that human cognitive performance does not follow artificial intelligence models, but operates according to complex routines that are based on factors which are affected by individual and cultural make up. This article intends to articulate some of those factors, and some of the implications that their existence poses for design practice and education.

This paper is an illustrated summary of a year-long research project carried out by Information Design Unit, commissioned by NHS Estates, to identify typical wayfinding problems people encounter at complex sites. The research involved studying 19 healthcare and 8 non-healthcare sites, selected to represent different wayfinding problems and solutions. In addition to signs and maps, we also identified environmental factors that influence people's directional decisions along a route, and questioned site users about how they found their way to their destination. The findings from the research culminated in the commissioning of new guidelines for wayfinding systems in healthcare sites.

We envisage a novel computer tool for producing technical documentation, in which the author specifies the desired content and style, but the exact wording and layout is determined by the system (including versions in languages the author need not know); a prototype of such a system is being developed in the ICONOCLAST project. Among other things, the system must adapt the wording of the generated document to its punctuation and layout. By studying a corpus of patient information leaflets, we have found many detailed examples of this interaction, some of which are described here. In particular, we focus on ways in which the use of special layout patterns (e.g., vertical lists, boxes) changes the options for wording, sometimes licensing departures from normal conventions of grammar and punctuation.

Written in 1974 while the authors were with the Open University, this paper first appeared in the 1976 Penrose Annual.The original abstract, written by the Penrose editor, read: Break down the barriers in the interests of the reader. Take responsibility for the success or failure of the communication. Do not accept a label or a slot on a production line. Be a complete human being with moral and intellectual integrity and thoroughgoing technical competence. This is the message of this article by two highly professional communicators at the Institute of Educational Technology of the Open University, Milton Keynes. It examines the range of complex problems involved in putting the expert's message in a form the ordinary person can best understand and use.It is reprinted here with minor changes that mostly reflect the current un acceptability of the pronoun 'he' used generi-cally. The authors have also added a 2000 Postscript.

Interaction modalities with document technologies have, until recently, been quite limited. Current advances have led to the emergance of a host of new techniques for navigation, marking and annotation, and these are allowing users of documents to get to grips with documents more effectively than before. This paper illustrates how sociological investigations can provide insights into what these new interaction modalities might be.