The Information Design Handbook

by Jenn Visocky O'Grady, Ken Visocky O'Grady

The best information design often goes "unnoticed" by the viewer because it conveys information so quickly and effectively. The Information Design Handbook celebrates graphics that are exemplars of communication and esthetics, and reveals the thought processes and design skills behind them. This comprehensive guide to creating information graphics is packed with essential design principles, case studies, color palettes, trouble-shooting tips, and much more. Designers will learn to achieve graphics that are visually striking yet concise and supremely funcitional with this must-have resource.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Reference, Art, Textbooks, Science, Business

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 23, 2008

Reviews

[Takuro Ishikawa]

This book provides some good tips for communicating analytics and research findings. After a brief definition of information design and its origins, the book explains how to make your reports clearer, easier to read and usable. The last section provides several case studies that illustrate the book's teachings.

[Laurian]

I really liked this book. It was really beautiful and pretty useful for the first 2/3s. The last 1/3 is all case studies and those were pretty boring for me to read. The case studies were also depressing because they didn't really demonstrate why those case studies were so good - the pictures were disappointing. Overall, a great book for anyone doing information rich visual design.

[Mostaque Ahammed]

Great book for designer, particularly who works with lots of information.

[Nathan Crowther]

The IDH is a fantastic manual for beginners to ID, but is also a great refresher for more seasoned experts. It helps bridge the gap between UX technical/researchers and UX visual designers.

Some of the topics presented are:

- The need for Information Design
- ID Defined
- ID History
- Cognitive principles
- Communication principles
- Aesthetic Principles

As a technologist and UX researcher, I found it a useful manual for learning some of the basics of design that I could incorporate into the little visual design that I actually do. I also found the layout of the book very straightforward and simple, so it was a quick read (despite it’s textbook size).

My favorite part of the book talks about the Pioneer 10, the first man-made artifact to travel beyond our solar system. Those who designed the identifying plaque on the outside of the spacecraft had to create a way to communicate with any language (in case the spacecraft was ever picked up by extraterrestrial life). They couldn’t rely on any language known to man, so they chose imagery that would (hopefully) be universal (in every sense of the word).

[Bella]

This a is very basic book that goes through some very basic principals of information design, and how it works in today's culture. I personally am not interested with any type of graphic design, so this was not something that I loved reading, but I guess that is why its a required reading for school and not something that I picked up for fun.

[Eli]

Best information design book I have found so far. Very practical and very easy to navigate. Also includes theories and models for structuring and presenting visual information. I love it! It's the perfect workbook!

[Alex]

Pretty easy to digest (as one would hope it would be, given the subject matter...) However, I didn't find the latter third of the book (the case studies) to be particularly relevant/useful to me. The first two sections seem like a handy enough reference, though.

[Megan]

Lovin' it.

[Susanne]

Excellent overview of both artistic and cognitive aspects of information design. I read this for pleasure.

[Paulo Teixeira]

Indispensável para todos aqueles que querem comunicar ideias complexas de modo inteligível e visual.

[Patrick]

A nice chronological summary of design of information graphics and communication.

[Andrea Laureti]

Simple text, this is the basis for making visual information correct.

[Habiba Ramzan]

its really good book for case study