Information Design Journal - Volume 11, Issue 2-3, 2002

This paper describes part of the work of the Typographic Design for Children project at The University of Reading. The aim was to find out whether children found serif or sans serif types easier or more difficult to read, and whether they found text with infant characters (e.g. variants of ‘a’ and ‘g’) easier or more difficult to read. We listened to 6-year-old children reading in a classroom, using specially-designed, high quality test material set in Gill Sans and Century with and without infant characters. We also asked children for their views about the typefaces used. We used miscue analysis to study tapes of children’s reading to see whether more errors occurred in text set in a particular typeface. The substitution category of miscue was explored in more depth to see whether differences were attributable to typeface. The results show that children in our test group could read text set in Gill and Century equally well.

This paper addresses the issue of redesigning a train list. The train list is a paper document of few pages that provides train operators of the Italian railway company with basic information about the features of the railway line they are moving along, the means of traction and engine characteristics.Methodologies borrowed from the fields of document design and human–computer interaction were applied to the analysis, redesign, and evaluation of a new train list following a first prototype developed by the railway company.In all phases (analysis, redesign, evaluation) the study was guided by the theoretical framework of cultural-historical psychology, according to which artifacts historically shaped by human practice always mediate human cognition. The results of the evaluation provide empirical evidence to support the added value of combining document design techniques with the heuristic role of the historical analysis of an artifact, especially in a safety-critical context, so as to properly improve tools and instruments used in human activity and thus reduce the risk of breakdowns.

We investigated the semiosis of pictorial, schematic, and abstract symbols using current and proposed emblems for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Cross-cultural symbol-referent ratings of correspondence suggested the symbols could all be considered icons and indexes of the referents. Mean comprehensibility estimation scores differed significantly between familiar and unfamiliar symbols. Pictorial graphical form and symbol familiarity did not appear to constrain interpretations in the open-ended comprehension test. Thus at the referent denotation level, the symbols appeared to be simultaneously iconic and indexical, and at the symbol interpretation level, they appeared to be simultaneously iconic and symbolic. The findings suggest that symbol semiosis, rather than graphical form, is a more practical method for deciding the type of symbol one would use to communicate specific types of messages.

The need to manage the immense complexity in software engineering makes tools and methods essential, and requires that they be designed in accordance with well-defined principles. Surprisingly, there is yet no explicit body of knowledge for designing diagrammatic modeling languages (DMLs), despite the fact that they are used extensively as the primary conceptual modeling tools in software engineering. This paper provides an overview of the new and growing field of DML design that aims at compiling such a body of knowledge. The paper starts with relevant definitions and a brief introduction of the current de-facto standard DML of software engineering called the Unified Modeling Language (UML), and offers a short account of efforts and directions in DML design.

Common practice holds that 80% of usability findings are discovered after five participants. Recent findings from web testing indicate that a much larger number of participants is required to get results and that independent teams testing the same web-based product do replicate results. Other findings suggest that results improve when testing teams work closely with developers in planning the test. This paper presents an insider view of the CUE-2 evaluation that may stimulate further debate regarding the results, plus two cases in which different teams uncovered the same usability issues, working independently but closely with the sponsor.

The paper presents a design strategy for e-learning hypermedia interfaces based on the notion of conceptual-navigational map. It proposes to analyze the cognitive and communication problems that arise in the use of hypermedia applications with specific goals, such as e-learning courseware modules, with the linguistic tools of pragmatics and discourse analysis, and shows how this can help in identifying specific communication problems related to the grounding and contextualization of new information, and how it can lead to new insights for design and to interfaces inspired by the linguistic means used in verbal communication to manage analogous problems. The implementation of such a design strategy in the SWISSLING courseware modules is discussed, and future directions of development towards context- aware adaptive hypermedia are briefly outlined.

The impact of technological and scientific innovations combined with consumer demands for clear, usable product information have changed the core competencies that technical communicators now need. In short, the job title, ‘technical communicator’ does not reflect what contemporary practitioners do. Despite the debate over the various meanings and ‘ownership’ of information design, the title, ‘information designer,’ appears to be the ‘best fit’ to describe the new profile of technical communicators. A study of contemporary New Zealand technical communicators reveals a shift similar to that of practitioners in the United States to redefine their roles as information designers.

Information can fulfill a new and essential purpose in our culture – serve as guidelines for making conscious choices (choices that are made with awareness of their consequences). In the article it is specified in what way the information for conscious choice can be created and what characteristics it needs to have. A model of the relationship between information and economic and political power called power structure is given and based on it the power-related obstacles to conscious choice are explained. It is shown that conscious choice may lead our preferences in a completely new direction. The so-called called two-step marketing strategy is introduced by which the information for conscious choice can be put into practice. It is argued that conscious or informed choice may create revitalizing impulses in both economy and culture.

Police records in the Netherlands should be written as much as possible in the suspect’s ‘own words’. However, they show a curious mix of legal phrases and colloquialisms. They are drawn up as first person monologues, which obscures the interactional nature of the interrogation. This article sheds light on the interrelations between the interrogation and the recording of it, showing how the interaction in the interrogation affects what is written down, and how the recording activities affect the interaction in the interrogation. Moreover, it illuminates some of the discrepancies between actual practice and the recommendations in police manuals. What appears to have a significant effect on the interrogation is the practice of contemporaneous typing of the records. The resulting question-answer-typing format favors some interrogation and recording techniques over others. This may explain why it is often not the suspect’s ‘own words’ that are recorded, but those of the interrogator.

The purpose of this paper is threefold. We summarize our experiences in building a multi-disciplinary capstone information design course that included faculty, staff, and students from art, computer science, business, communications, sociology, music, philosophy, mathematics, and education. We discuss ways in which findings from this course have impacted our programs in the foundation studies of drawing and design. Finally, we provide specific examples of projects and best practices advice for coping with the challenges of working in a multi-disciplinary atmosphere. Our best practices advice extends to developing an information design program that is fully integrated into a larger art and design curriculum and the greater university.

The increasing use of visualised information puts the design qualifications of laymen, both as consumers and clients, on the agenda. Visual literacy is in this article regarded as a basic skill for the 21st century, possibly quite as important for democratic participation as are reading and writing. Design education of laymen is discussed; if they need any, and if so, who should give such education. Education ‘in action’ and pre-qualification of laymen are regarded as two strategies. Compulsory school, television and newspapers are arenas for building knowledge and positive attitudes to design.

Students often initially encounter the idea of information design with the preconceived notion that information design is dry and impersonal. To counter this attitude, the author stressed to students that information design is about making information personal (and thus accessible) and instructed students to approach their information design tasks from the point of view of storytelling. Through examples of student projects – forms, maps, and instructions – the author describes how students combined their own reactions to the forms, maps and instructions (i.e., their own stories of encountering the material) with analyses of the visual and verbal characteristics of those information documents (the information’s story) as the basis for developing creating user-based designs.

Birth/Death of information as art: ‘BodyWorlds’The author comments on the notorious exhibit of anatomical art, ‘BodyWorlds’ by Dr. Gunther von Hagens when it was on view in London (March 21st 2002 – February 9th 2003).

Two interactive displays were designed that let people modify lifestyle hazard factors (e.g. diet/exercise) and see how this changed their likelihood of serious illness, such as coronary heart disease and stroke, in the next 10 years. Pilot testing showed it was better to create strong visual links between changing hazard factors and their effects on risk of illness, than to link hazard selections to their changes. Revisions to left-right sequencing on screen were needed when moving from graphic to tabular displays. This reflected the design principle of giving salience to the user’s goals through the visual rhetoric of the screen display.