Information Design Journal - Volume 17, Issue 3, 2009

Text clouds or tag clouds are increasingly common on the Internet nowadays. They normally indicate the words and ideas most used in a specific situation. The power of this design tool to help users make decisions seems as yet little researched. Emphasis on the main words through the use of font-size differences can change the way people read and search for information on the web. This simple visual way of showing ideas is discussed in this paper. The paper describes case studies and presents findings of empirical tests conducted on the effectiveness of text clouds.

Isometric overview diagrams can be used to synthesize and present complex information in a form similar to a geographic atlas. Given the pattern and shape of a geographic boundary, the reader can understand a variety of information – natural resources, population, historical events – superimposed on the underlying pattern. In the same way, information about complex data networks can be represented in a series of isometric diagrams superimposed on a similar pattern.

Analytical approaches to organizational decisionmaking, with their heavy reliance on data, measures and increasingly sophisticated IT, work well for solving tame problems, but not for the wicked problems which increasingly confront organizational and government decision-makers. An alternative approach, drawing on the ancient tradition of rhetoric and focusing on the way that meaning is constructed and communicated, opens up new horizons for enabling decision-makers to overcome the problem of information overload and make good decisions. Applying this approach opens up new opportunities for information design to play a crucial role in organizational decision-making.

Information overload results from having plenty of data but not enough time to organize it so that it assists decision making. This paper argues that although digital tools can help people make decisions, their development could benefit from an appreciation of how people’s behavior changes as the display features of the tools change. Therefore advantages could come from greater collaboration between designers and researchers who explore the psychological processes that enable decision making (processes such as search, understanding, inference and memory). Evidence is provided of individual differences in the way decision aids are used, and the value of multimodality information to accommodate diverse audience needs.

In developing Isotype, Otto Neurath and his colleagues were the first to systematically explore a consistent visual language as part of an encyclopedic approach to representing all aspects of the physical world. The pictograms used in Isotype have a secure legacy in today’s public information symbols, but Isotype was more than this: it was designed to communicate social facts memorably to less educated groups, including schoolchildren and workers, reflecting its initial testing ground in the socialist municipality of Vienna during the 1920s. The social engagement and methodology of Isotype are examined here in order to draw some lessons for information design today.

In the context of data on cities, we present an example of how to make statistics relevant and meaningful to non-expert users. While the cities of the world are emerging as key players in global processes, from climate change to migration, the body of data on the cities of the world is neither extensive nor well-organized. Towards the end of organizing, understanding, and presenting this data, we have created an online framework called CityRank. To make this data relevant to users, CityRank allows users to upload new data sets and create and share personalized rankings of cities based on the data included in CityRank’s data repository.

A global challenge for the 21st century is to find a sustainable way of life. The Green movement has helped to increase people’s awareness of sustainability issues and propelled development of innovative products to help decrease our ecological footprint. Smart Grid applications, which enable users to monitor their household’s energy consumption, are one of these innovative products. Critical data visualization helps to build awareness, but does not result automatically in effecting behavioral changes, which are required to ensure the Earth’s future and survival. The question then shifts to how exactly to motivate, persuade, educate, and lead people to reduce their household energy consumption. Our study proposes to research and analyze different powerful ways to improve “green behavior” by persuading and motivating people to reduce their household’s energy consumption through a mobile phone application we call the “Green Machine.” We have designed and tested a prototype that is based on behavioral change-process issues-analysis to persuade people to “go green.” This article explains the development of the Green Machine user interface, information design, and information visualization.

This information design study is based on a social mobility survey developed in Mexico that investigated how people are moving – between generations – from one socioeconomic level to the next. The aim of the design project is to offer data visualizations to help people from different backgrounds understand complex issues, such as the relationship between level of education and income level. The visualizations consist of bar graphs in motion and images that help users identify themselves with various living situations. The graphs were tested among different users to confirm their effectiveness.

There is great potential for graphics to present quantities, processes, and spatial relations that make knowledge communication more effective through simple to complex visual languages. Visual representation conveys certain messages, directly or metaphorically. An effective visual representation communicates with users by offering core messages and other embedded qualities. These embedded qualities generate interest in the topics/issues, create desirable energy for seeking more knowledge in depth, and enable readers to explore their favorable influences. It is no longer enough to consider a visual representation to be merely attractive or pleasing; it also has to be designed in a way to effectively tell stories in order to better play its role as an information carrier and to meet users’ needs for multiple modes of usage. This study examines the ways in which visual explanation both tells stories and presents their underlying meanings. Visual information design not only presents concepts and events across time but also disseminates information widely through various media. This case study investigates various visual depictions of fertility rates and observes the causes and effects of viewers’ decision making. The total fertility rates in Taiwan dropped dramatically from 1951 to 2006, according to the Department of Household Registration Affairs, Ministry of Interior (MOI), Taiwan. This drop not only will render the aging population greater than other age groups in the near future, but also greatly changes social, economic, and environmental progress in this region. This study’s small effort in the information design field will help create a link between practitioners’ intelligence and researchers’ suggestions, thereby helping enhance the effectiveness of visual communication.