Information Design

by Robert Jacobson (Editor)

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.

Genres: Design, Communication, Art Design, Science, Nonfiction, Technology

Hardcover

First published June 18, 1999

Reviews

[Matt Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great anthology of thinking about information architecture as "information design" that is particularly useful because the articles were written before the semantic web and various data exchange formats came into use in the 2000s (XML/JSON) and various efforts at standardization of modeling (UML/BPMN, etc). This makes the approach free of specific implementation detail and more about the thought process and consideration for different design approaches. It was also nice to read a text about user interaction that wasn't about UX.

[Yokusun Basi]

Information Design by Robert Jacobson (1999)

[Curtis Newbold · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book serves as a wonderful introduction to information design studies. I read this book as a doctoral student in a class entitled "Information Design." Having little exposure the field beforehand, I was hooked after reading some of the articles in this book. The book's greatest strength is that it draws from scholarship within and without academia. Topics cover a wide range of information design principles and include articles on wayfinding, museum design, video games, interactive media, sense-making, human-centered design, and sign-posting, among others.

[Valleri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite of the collection of textbooks for Information Design I had to read this semester, but definitely the most insightful to read. My main complaint was the lack of "graphics" for being a graphic design book. This collection of essays regarding various organizational formats for data was intriguing and offered several solutions to information design problems.

[Daniel]

Offers visions of how information design can be practiced ethically and diligently, to the mutual benefit of consumers and producers. Presents various methods that seem effective, such as sense-making and way-finding, and serves as a guide to this...

[Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

MIT needs to hire a proofreader! Beyond that, the book provides some interesting, albeit very abstract concepts.

[Erin Malone]

information design,design,graphic design