Information Design Journal - Volume 1, Issue 3, 1979

As viewdata systems expand rapidly to meet the estimated huge market demand coming into view, the graphics quality, legibility and display standards that they offer also come under in creasingly cut teal s cru tiny. The author rep o rts on an important study earned out for the EEC Commission, focussing on this aspect of the videotex story.

The author has been examining for the last ten years the essential relationship between information and design. His article aims to explain his assertion that the purpose of all design is to produce information which is used to controla product's performance and appearance.

Computer graphics systems existing today allow for the manipulation of increasingly complex visual displays. The visualisation of information in a computer-based medium suggests solutions to two critical problems: first, the overabundance of alphanumeric information routinely generated by information systems and second, the expression complexity in situations that face the business and research communities.Graphic designers accustomed to handling complex scientific and technical information in a systematic and structural way offer a resource for the development of more effective presentations of computer-generated material. Certain graphic designers who specialise in informational graphics are interested in beginning a conversation with the people developing computer graphics software and firmware. The outcome of these dialogues would be the articulation and utilisation of the principles and elements of effective visual design.

Anyone who works, lives or simply travels in the flood-risk area should have received explanatory literature, be aware of the flood threat and have prepared themselves for the possible event of a flood warning. This paper reviews the literature that has been produced to educate the public and discusses whether it has been successful. This review is based on a report presented to the GLC in 1978. Since then some of the recommendations made in the report have been acted upon. Though this has resulted in the improvement of individual pieces of borough literature the overall standard is as yet far from what was recommended.

On the occasion of the publication of the first International Standard on Public Information Symbols ISO 7001, the author gives some background information on the development of the subject within ISO. This is supplemented by basic design recommendations and a discussion of the graphic guideline examples contnbuted to ISO 7001. The article is completed with a report on ongoing activities within the responsible ISO committee and its working groups.

The study discussed here is concerned with the construction and subsequent validation of an Aesthetic Line Judgment Scale, the Test Procedures employed, a Factor Analysis of results and a discussion on the Predictive capacity of the tests.

This paper presents Leonardo's theory of picture perception as a model of a productive theory. The theory itself will not stand up to modern cnticism hut was nevertheless the essential basis for the development o f a communicative technology (perspective naturalism) of remarkable and continuing power. The author concludes that the most productive theorising from the designer's point of view is likely to occur within his own discipline, and that designers must have the confidence to pursue enquiries even though they may lack the kind of ngour that is thought essential in some other areas.

It is suggested that the means to analyse illustration would be of great benefit to students, illustrators, publishers and others, and a model is presented identifying 12 elements which the author believes contribute to the comprehensibility of pictures, particularly those intended to be in support of text.