Wurman’s Five Rules of Information Communication


The iconic and irascible information architect Richard Saul Wurman has some great wisdom to impart about effectively communicating large amounts of information visually. He is the founder of the popular Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) conference, a consummate information architect, and the author of nearly 100 books that exhibit a high degree of design excellence. He offers five simple rules for more effectively communicating information in any form.







It’s not often that such simple rules yield so much clarity, especially when applied to such a difficult task a communicating complex information clearly. I’ve found that applying Wuman’s guidelines, particularly LATCH, has helped me get started in parsing through a large amount of information and lead the way to communicate it more effectively.


About Bill Ferster


Bill Ferster is a research professor at the University of Virginia and a technology consultant for organizations using web-applications for ed-tech, data visualization, and digital media. He is the author of Sage on the Screen (2016, Johns Hopkins), Teaching Machines (2014, Johns Hopkins), and Interactive Visualization (2012, MIT Press), and has founded a number of high-technology startups in past lives. For more information, see www.stagetools.com/bill.


All quotes from Richard Saul Wurman’s Information Architects, 1996, Graphis Press