Information Design

by Jacobson, Robert; Wurman, Richard Saul

• ISBN13: 9780262600354
• ISBN10: 0262600358
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-25
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

Information design is the newest of the design disciplines. As a sign of our times, when the crafting of messages and meaning is so central to our lives, information design is not only important-it is essential. Contemporary information designers seek to edify more than to persuade, to exchange more than to foist upon. With ever more powerful technologies of communication, we have learned that the issuer of designed information is as likely as the intended recipient to be changed by it, for better or worse. The contributors to this book are both cautionary and hopeful as they offer visions of how information design can be practiced diligently and ethically, for the benefit of information consumers as well as producers. They present various methods that seem to work, such as sense-making and way-finding. They make recommendations and serve as guides to a still young but extraordinarily pervasive-and persuasive-field.

Author Biography

Robert Jacobson is Principal of Bluefire! Consulting, in Silicon Valley ([e-mail]).

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Richard Saul Wurman
Preface	xv
Introduction: Why Information Design Matters	1	(10)
Robert Jacobson
I Theoretical Foundations of Information Design	11	(88)
Information Design: The Emergence of a New Profession	15	(20)
Robert E. Horn
Chaos, Order, and Sense-Making: A Proposed Theory for Information Design	35	(24)
Brenda Dervin
Human-Centered Design	59	(24)
Mike Cooley
Sign-Posting Information Design	83	(16)
Romedi Passini
II The Practice of Information Design	99	(164)
The Uniqueness of Individual Perception	103	(28)
Roger Whitehouse
Information Design in Informal Settings: Museums and Other Public Spaces	131	(62)
C. G. Screven
Graphic Tools for Thinking, Planning, and Problem Solving	193	(28)
Yvonne M. Hansen
Visual Design in Three Dimensions	221	(26)
Hal Thwaites
Collaborative Information Design: Seattle's Modern Odyssey	247	(16)
Judy Anderson
III Designing for the Technologies of Information	263	(86)
Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design	267	(26)
Nathan Shedroff
Interactivity and Meaning	293	(8)
Sheryl Macy
Elizabeth Andersen
John Krygier
The Role of Ambiguity in Multimedia Experience	301	(16)
Jim Gasperini
Sculpting in Zeroes and Ones	317	(10)
Steve Holtzman
Personal Reflections on the Development of Cyberspace	327	(14)
Simon Birrell
Epilogue	339	(2)
Rationalizing Information Representation	341	(8)
Jef Raskin
Contributors	349