Meetings Information Design: More than "Words with Pictures"
January '98 Meeting
Workshop Leader:
Mike Sharp

On Saturday, January 17, the STC-PMC hosted a workshop at the Institute for Scientific Information on information design and development. Mike Sharp, an information design consultant on contract for Deloitte & Touche, introduced workshop participants to "information design." According to the STC Information Design SIG, information design is "the application of traditional and evolving design principles in the process of translating complex, unorganized, or unstructured data into valuable, meaningful information." Sharp described information design (also called information development) as an emerging field with its own perspective on "how information is arranged so that it communicates most clearly." Sharp identified three leading specialists in the field of information design, each with their own perspective on how words should be used with pictures. He summarized their basic guidelines for using words with pictures:
  • Edward R. Tufte--represent data faithfully and aesthetically
  • Karen A. Schriver--integrate words and pictures to achieve a rhetorical purpose molded by readers' thoughts and feelings as identified in empirical studies
  • William Horton--combine words and pictures efficiently for effective communication
Sharp led several activities that required workshop participants to develop information designs for a simulated workplace situation. Using tools and concepts of information design, participants made decisions about how to combine text and graphics to display and sequence information and to show relationships in the information.

Framing and negotiating
As the activities advanced, participants discovered that how they had framed questions early in the process shaped the information that they developed. Participants also discovered another key component of the information design process: negotiation. Negotiations occurred within and among the groups of workshop participants, who often emphasized different concepts and tools when designing their information. Participants also recognized the need to negotiate their information designs with the client company, which had already engineered the information in ways that appeared to conflict with some designs proposed by participants.

By the end of the workshop, participants had a better understanding of the information design process and how it can be politicized by existing structures and complicated by other information. Sharp concluded the workshop by reminding participants that there is always more than one way to develop information, but that the goal of information design is to develop the one that works best for the targeted audience.

To learn more about information design, visit the Information Design SIG's home page at the STC web site http://www.stc-va.org/. Sharp was the guest editor for the fall issue of the ID SIG newsletter, Design Matters. Major works of the leading specialists are:

  • Edward R. Tufte: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
  • Karen A. Schriver: Dynamics in Document Design
  • William Horton: Designing and Writing Online Documentation: Hypermedia for Self-Supporting Products

Return to . . .

[Meetings] [STC-PMC Home] [STC Home Page]
posted: March 5, 1998 (rst)