Author: sheilapontis
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Information design content
Information designers create visualisations at various instances of their problem-solving process. Working or process visualisations are often created during conceptual stages, and represent information designers’ thoughts, ideas, tests, research, and learning phases. While making sense of content, they draw, sketch, and diagram to externalise and, in some cases, share their thinking. In some cases, information…
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The Two Sides of Familiarity
“I don’t know how to use the twenty special features on my telephone” said R.S. Wurman back in 1989. Today, I couldn’t agree more with him: Devices frequently described as ‘easy to use’ can be highly challenging. Recently, I have been playing around with an iPhone for a prolonged period of time (NB: I’m a…
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Applied information design: Simple & Functional
Every time I’m traveling, going to work or just walking around, I can’t help noticing the influence or the need of information design. Airports, roads and museums are some more obvious spaces in which applied information design can be frequently found, but others are less evident and not frequently noticed (e.g. electrical appliance boxes, objects…
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Medical Information Design
A few weeks ago, I visited the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City to check Bodies in Balance. The exhibition presents an information design journey through “the origins, history and practice” of Tibetan medicine. Tibetan science principles of healing are visually represented in “paintings, manuscripts, and medical instruments.” The journey begins with a questionnaire…
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Rethinking Education, Improving Practice
One way of improving the practice of a discipline or field is having a robust education and solid theoretical foundation. In the case of information design, these aspects are still unclear and vary across education systems and programmes. For example, information design programmes in the US, the UK, Spain and some countries in South America…
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Reconciling Beauty and Function
Last week took place Tapestry Conference. Thanks to live-stream, I spent some time watching some of the talks. The discussions around beauty and functionality made me reflect on how we, as information design practitioners, approach the problem-solving process and conceive solutions, but also (and frequently barely discussed) how we, as information design educators, equip future…
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Turning Data Into Diagrams, An Exhibition
Today I visited the “Beautiful Science: Picturing Data, Inspiring Insight” exhibition at the British Library. The small exhibition explores how scientific information from different areas, including health, weather forecast and human evolution, has been visualised throughout the years. It also “explores how our understanding of ourselves and our planet has evolved alongside our ability to…
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Information Designers’ learning process
The aim of information designers is to get to the bottom of a problem and find the most appropriate solution. Constructing deep understanding of each situation is essential to achieve that goal, and develop high quality effective outcomes. In a previous post, I briefly explained the learning process we go through in order to gain…
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Constructing deep understanding
Information designers make sense of situations. To achieve that goal, they first need to gain an understanding of those situations. Poor understanding results in ineffective outcomes that fail in communicating a message with clarity. To ensure the creation of well-conceived solutions, at the very beginning of a new project, information designers aim to construct an…
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38 Steps for Effective Information Design
As in any other practice and specialized field, learning and applying foundational principles and theories, and adopting a thorough problem-solving process are essential steps to develop the necessary skills and knowledge for information design practice. Therefore, there are no magic recipes for becoming a good information designer. However, by ensuring that we are considering the…
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Complexity ≠ Confusion
Complexity is an intrinsic part of life; it is normal and necessary, explains Norman (2011) in his book Living with Complexity. However, complexity is frequently pointed out as challenging and a product of our current society which makes communication and understanding harder. But is complexity the reason for poor sensemaking and misinformation design? Complexity is a…
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Visualisations & the Process of Abstraction
When information is visualised it can take many forms from diagrams, maps, and information graphics to PPT presentations and wayfinding systems, to name a few. Any of those visualisations can support the processes of learning, teaching, managing information and communication, among others, but the visualisation of information does not always achieve that goal. This is…
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