As a whole, information design is used to develop a document that caters to the user, meaning people can easily find what they need, understand the information, and appropriately use and apply the information. Janice Redish (2000) mentioned that when information design is broken down, there are two main categories: the overall process of developing a successful document and the way the information is presented on a page or screen (layout, typography, color, etc.) (p. 163). To successfully develop a document, many information designers use the information design process, which consists of six main steps: (1) planning the information, (2) planning the project, (3) selecting content/organizing/designing pages or screens, (4) drafting and testing, (5) producing the final copy, and (6) continuing the process. Similar to other aspects of technical communication, information design involves many fields of work, including anthropology and ethnography, architecture, graphic design, human factors and cognitive psychology, instructional design and instructional technology, linguistics, organizational psychology, rhetoric, typography, and usability.
Carliner goes into great depth about his three-part framework for information design that he developed from the three levels that theorists in education and instructional design consider when designing courses. The first part of Carliner’s three-part framework is physical design, meaning the ability to find information. The second part is cognitive design, meaning the ability to understand information. The third part is affective design, meaning the ability to feel comfortable with the presentation of the information. According to Carliner (2000), the purpose of these three levels of information design is to “describe the implications of this framework for the teaching of technical communication to majors in the field, to the practice of technical communication in industry, and to research in the field” (p. 562).
This source elaborates how information design is a complex topic that can be defined differently based on human factors, such as location and culture. European information design organizations have an understanding that people can learn from each other, and what is learned is relevant to all kinds of communication. Information designers need to know how to be clear, legible, and understandable in their work because people share interests in the use of clear language, typography, photos, and diagrams. Because of this, information designers play the role of figuring out how people perceive things and fit knowledge into their existing frameworks. Conrad Taylor (2000) says, “In improving our awareness, we learn from other disciplines, embrace new ideas and techniques, and recognize that elements of information design have been practiced for hundreds if not thousands of years” (p. 167). This source elaborates how information design is a complex topic that can be defined differently based on human factors, such as location and culture.
Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts has one of the most progressive information design programs in the United States, focusing on the user by addressing universal human behavioral factors and goal-driven behaviors and needs. Here, students are discouraged from making quick, yet often false, assumptions regarding the best way to design support for users. William Gribbons (2000) says that Bentley College defines information design as, “a much broader range of support strategies, with a goal of selecting the strategy that is least intrusive to the user while still supporting the user’s goals” (p. 169). In doing so, information designers engage in a concept called knowledge-infused design, where they use resource-dependent strategies to find solutions that are found much deeper in the system design.
While researching information design, I learned a lot about the topic that relates to my interests in the Technical Writing and Communication major. Within the TWC major, my sub-plan is information technology and design and information design is a topic of technical communication that combines skills of writing, communication, and design together. One thing that I learned that surprised me was that there is no clear definition of information design because there are many skills used within this topic of technical communication. I also learned that although the written text is the most important aspect of a document, information designers treat text as less important than the design because text is not the main focus of information design. I found the information within each source useful to further understand the many aspects and complexity of information design.