Information Design Journal - Volume 3, Issue 2, 1982

A real attempt is being made by government to reduce the burden of forms on the public. This paper reports one particular exercise, undertaken by the Central Office of Information as part of the Rayner Review of Administrative Forms. The skills of a writer and a designer, backed up by research facilities, were used to reduce a complicated form from six pages to four without any reduction in content although the size of type was increased. It is believed that a considerable improvement in comprehension was achieved.

This paper describes an exercise in designing a 'specific' graphic code. Five stages of development are described from a simple numeric code to a more complex graphic symbol system. The authors conclude that a purist approach to symbol systems must give way to a pragmatic design method with priority given to the needs and background of the users.

This paper describes part of continuing research which is concerned with description of visual organization of verbal graphic language. There are no recognized descriptive techniques for studying spatial and graphic articulation of VGL, and the method proposed here is suggested as a prerequisite for such work. The VGL of lay people is considered to be an especially important area of investigation in order to learn more about how language is used and the factors which affect this. Λ study of letterwriting has therefore been used as a starting point for working out a method.

Compared to the narrower linguistics of the recent past, the rounded-out linguistics of the 1980s, deepened by semantics/pragmatics/discourse and broadened by sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, offers (and should seek) much closer collaboration with typographers. In particular, linguistics no longer ignores writing, but is beginning to address itself to the existence of more than one medium of language (the medial aspect); it must develop a graphology which goes beyond the analysis of the linear features of writing-systems to embrace the non-linear resources of writing, so different from those of speech. The linguist's distinctive conceptual approach is illustrated by his use of the key term 'text'.

For the past few years, PIACT has been helping to develop culturally appropriate print materials to explain correct contraceptive use to illiterate and semiliterate audiences in eight Asian and Latin American countries. Our experience has shown that this understanding is most effectively and economically acquired through the use of the print medium in conjunction with personalized instruction in individual or small group settings. PIACT has developed its own methodology for the production of non-verbal instructional print materials. This methodology is based on working with, and learning from, the target audience at each stage of the materials' design and development process.