Information Design Journal - Volume 10, Issue 1, 2000

Today, we can say that the graphic system of visual variables established and developed by Bertin represents an indispensable and universally recognized theory of the cartographic transcription of geographic information. Various cartographers have used and improved on Bertin’s System. In the age of automation, GIS and multimedia,initial results in adapting Bertin’s graphic system to the dynamic and also non-visual representation of information are now available. Today one can say that despite its fundamental character, Bertin’s theory has proven to be very adaptable and open towards innovation.

After four symposiums in Voralberg (in co-operation with Fachhochschul Vorarlberg) and one in Pittsburgh (in cooperation with Carnegie-Mellon University), Vision Plus 6 took place in Vienna in July 1999. In October 1999 Vision Plus 7 'Design for communities/diversification of minds – conversation in process' had been staged at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Vision Plus 8' Turning information into corporate knowledge/innovative information management: a design challenge' got fixed for July 2000, again in Vienna under the patronage of UNESCO (in cooperation with 'Fachhochschul-Studiengaenge der Wiener Wirtschaft' and 'Werbe Akademie WIFI Wien').The topic of Vision Plus 6, 'Drawing the process: visual planning and explaining' focused on the visualisation of processes and how visual means can transform complex data into comprehensible information. Three subthemes had been chosen: - Drawings with a purpose: seeing and understanding; - Process visualisation and visual planning; - Information + Creation -> SensationThe Vision Plus symposiums are organised by IIID, the International Institute for Information Design. IIID is indebted to the editors of the Information Design Journal for their close co-operation in having decided to publish a selected number of papers and summaries. These papers and summaries in IDJ 10 (1) that are based on presentations at the Vision Plus 6 conference nicely complement the 'Proceedings, Abstracts, Bibliography' of Vision Plus 6, which can be obtained from the IIID web site.It is the long term aim of Vision Plus symposia to prepare the grounds for a semi-virtual Information Design University. Representatives of more than twenty renowned universities and research institutes from around the world have already declared themselves ready to contribute actively to its development.IDJ readers interested in IIID activities in general and Vision Plus symposia in particular are invited to write to [email protected] or to visit www.iiid.net for further information.

Studies in abstract form and information designBenjamin FryMIT Media LabFive information revolutions: Changing how we think and communicate in the next decadeRobert E.HornStanford UniversityVisual characteristics: Why style mattersMark MentzerCarnegie Mellon University, School of DesignAttention: An information design perspectiveRune PetterssonMälardalen UniversityExplanatory drawings from a pragmatic point of viewDavid SlessCommunication Research Institute of AustraliaInformation types in instructional illustrationsKarel van der WaardeDelft University of Technology & Van der Waarde Design ResearchInformation types in instructional illustrationsPiet WestendorpDelft University of Technology