There is no exact definition on what information design is. However, in some ways we can describe information design as the way we logically organize information to serve users needs and gain their trust.
Information Design is all about user experience, how they learn, remember information, the impact of colors, shapes, patterns, and learning styles.
Following are the some of the areas where information design is used:
- Web sites
- Brochures and business cards
- Freeway signs
- Road maps
- Books
- Directions or instructions guides
Information design requires lots of research to understand the information about a particular problem or a subject. Information design addresses high level information issues.
History
Information design is associated with the age of technology, but it does have historical roots. Early instances of modern information design include:
- John Snow's spot maps, which pinpointed the source of a deadly cholera outbreak in 1850s London
- Charles Joseph Minard's 1861 diagram depicting Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812
- Otto Neurath's International Picture Language of the 1930s
Figure 1. Charles Joseph Minard's information graphic of Napoleon's March Who is an information designer?
An information designer is a specialist who practices in many different fields, working on many different projects, ranging from print to online and more.
An information designer is someone who works in the following fields:
- Graphic Design
- Information Architecture
- Interaction Design
- User Experience Design
- Usability testing
- Human Factors
- Human-Computer Interaction
Information Design requires multiple skills such as graphic design, human factors design, writing and programming. As a result, anyone who has these skills: graphic designers, copywriters, technical writers, user interface designers, web developers, etc could be an information design.
Some practitioners of information design are specialists working in one aspect of the field, such as information design for web sites, or usability research and testing. Lately, information design become extremely important part all design projects. The more complex the information is for the project, the greater the need for information design process.
Why is Information Design Important?How we deliver information is important. These days, as never before, information technology changes rapidly. We have greater need for good guidelines to help us to sort the information through. With all the new blogs and web sites we have even greater need for good graphic design and charts to help us to understand the information we are seeing and reading on the Internet. Without good design and organization all the data we read and see is meaningless and hard to understand.
