Information Design

Introduction
In our society (and economy), information is presented both verbally and visually to reduce the level of uncertainty in decision making. Information Design is the art and science of presenting information through a design that people can use to develop content that suits their personal goals. It involves creating communication artifacts by shaping verbal and visual language to enable (and enhance) relationships among people through an effective design of content.

History
Information Design can be seen as early as the Egyptian scribes, who recorded hieroglyphic notes, reports, and letters of everyday life and happenings in ancient Egypt. In 1979, the Information Design Journal began publishing in the United Kingdom, and in 1984 after a conference in the Netherlands, Information Design was published as a means for writers to improve the design of information artifacts and systems (i.e. traffic signs, business forms, textbooks, maps, etc) encountered by people in their daily lives. In modern Technical Communication, Information Design can be seen in forms such as documents (newspapers or magazines), information graphics (presentations, charts, and graphs), user interface design (computer software and databases), and even graphic design (photography, typography, and illustration). Information Design is multidisciplinary in the sense that it belongs to many areas. Many come to information design from backgrounds such as rhetoric and technical communication, with the goal of clarity in communication. To achieve this goal, all content must be accurately designed, produced and distributed, and later correctly interpreted to be understood by members of the intended audience.

Grouping content
To ensure the visual display of content is rhetorically effective, technical communicators must design content into groups that will invite a reader to notice, memorize, and appreciate the information delivered. This can be done either verbally (short sentences) or visually (photos, graphs, charts) according to the purpose. When content permits the reader to continue reading and identifying pieces of information to fit together, the design is rhetorically effective, and the content will be memorable and satisfied by the reader.

Organizing content visually
When designing content, technical communicators need to consider the organization of visual display of the text and graphics. It is important to understand how the reader will view the content, find what they need, comprehend what they find, and use what they find. Some things to consider when organizing content are; size (in text), color, contrast, alignment, repetition, proximity, texture, and whitespace. The overall goal is to guide the reader’s eyes through text and images. Organizing the content visually will capture the focus of the reader and makes for an effective information design.

Signaling structural relationships
After content is grouped and organized, readers should have a grasp, both verbally and visually, of the design. Signalling structure verbally by creating groups to organize information into a message requires verbal devices such as labels, captions, headings, subheadings, and sidebars, along with the layering of long and complex content into levels of a hierarchy (top to bottom, important to less important). In doing so, readers can make faster judgement about the structure of content and know where to read first. To signal structure visually, typographical and graphic techniques such as size, portion, style, and weight can be used to reflect the rhetorical relationships among the content. Size and portion are the most fundamental signals. When placed in a focal position of a reader (front page of a newspaper or top of a website), they indicate the importance of a message and engage the reader to take notice.