Information Design Journal - Volume 5, Issue 1, 1986

This paper discusses the problems of putting across information about bus travel in London. In Part 1 the authors describe the basic needs of bus users, referring to the development of the conventional bus map over recent years. The steps by which various redesigns were proposed and tested are recounted, leading to a proposal by Roger Graef and Andrew Holmes for a radical rethink of the whole concept of bus route cartography. The development of a new bus map for central London, launched in 1981, is described in detail. Part 2 will appear in IDJ 5/

It is proposed that the appropriateness of a typeface is partly determined by the extent to which it shares multi-modal features with the concept that it represents. Exploring a number of professions as the concepts to be represented, we offer evidence to support this hypothesis. We demonstrate that n on-specialists discriminate a variety of display typefaces and professions in terms of a common set of multimodal features. In addition, on the basis of the extent to which each typeface shares multi-modal features with each profession, we successfully predict the judged appropriateness of various typefaces to represent each profession.

Given the ubiquity of transactional forms it is surprising that so little is known about the dynamics of the form-filling activity itself This paper reports a detailed observational study of the reading and routing activities of subjects as they filled in a DHSS postal claim form. The results of this study suggest a number of broad principles which appear to govern the interaction of subjects with the written material of the form. The local application of these principles in the context of a form-filling history can account for idiosyncrasies in form-filling behaviour. This interpretation is consistent with the view that form-fillers employ a conversational model of form-filling, despite the static nature of the paper medium through which it is conducted.

This article discusses work undertaken to improve the management of information on Prestel It describes the development of improved indexing and information retrieval systems, leading to the recently introduced new subject index, backed up by a thesaurus and associated software. The work was linked with the development by British Telecom Research and Development Laboratories of the new Keyword system of access, which Prestel plans to introduce shortly.