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Whether you are writing ad copy, interactive materials, magazine how-to’s, or technical user guides, the subject of good information design is going to pop up.

What is information design? It’s just that, the intelligent design of information such that it is usable, understandable, and visible. Design (Latin designare, “to mark out”) implies a lack of accident, happenstance, or synchronicity. Design means to lead someone to do something, believe something, or
perceive something.

What do we mean by good information design? What makes a particular information design approach “good” or not depends on

• the reader of the material
• the subject matter
• the reader’s purpose

Some Examples

For example, if your reader is late to her appointment across town, and is perusing the subway map, she is most likely looking for the quickest, most direct path to her appointment. She needs to plan the route, and the information design should support her need. The map should have color-coded subway lines, well-marked subway stations, and well-marked exchanges.

On the other hand, take the case of the reader sitting at the opera, perusing the playbill and wishing to know who the beautiful lead dancer is. Good information design will help him with his goal: a picture of the dancer, her name in bold next to her photo with her role in parentheses next to her name, followed by a bio. The bio’s length can also help the casual observer of the playbill make assumptions about the importance of a performer’s role–long bio, lead role.

One of my favorite projects was creating a quick install card for one of Cisco’s network products. I found out that the person installing the product was not a typical user of the product, but a technician. Technicians typically spend their day scrambling around inside of hot wiring closets, lugging hardware onto racks, and testing connectivity. Obviously, the longer installation manual was no good. The information (the bits) was good, but the container (the atoms) didn’t fit the bill. They needed just the facts, condensed to something that would fit inside a shirt pocket.

I designed a tri-fold with 10 simple steps, including two diagrams (one of which was the back of the machine). Each step stood out because the step number was reversed out on a black box. On the last page of the tri-fold were 6 steps to test the connection, and an email address to contact someone for further assistance.

I have no direct correlative data to prove this, but the Cisco call center told me that installation support calls on this product went down considerably after the product started shipping with the quick install card.

Tips

So what else can you do to leverage the power of information design?

• People are busy, busy, busy these days. They scan for information, then slow down when they think they’re getting close to stuff that’s important to them. Make sure they can scan easily. This means short chunks of information, headers and headlines, and visuals.
• If you are writing instructions, modularize each piece, using active headers and cross-references to avoid repetition. Makes your instructions shorter and easier to scan.
• If you are writing copy or articles, using headers on longer materials lets your readers scan through the piece and find things that interest them.
• Use lists as much as you can. Use bullet lists when the order isn’t important, and numbered/step lists for procedures. Lists provide more white space, and give the impression of being short and easy to read.
• If you need to show the results of something, or need to compare one thing to another, use a table. It’s much more effective than trying to explain it all with words. Use paragraphs or bullet lists to embellish or provide analysis of the data in the table.
• Use diagrams to show readers what things look like (or should look like).
• Use flowcharts to indicate process flow.
• Use maps to indicate the relationship/context between two or more things (such as where you are in relation to an office suite or how to get to the park).
• Use charts to show progress (line/fever chart) or distributions (pie charts).
• With visuals (such as tables, graphics, diagrams, maps) always strive to reduce noise and junk. Excessive rules and gridlines on a table or fever chart just distract from the story you are telling. Excessive details in a diagram (like drop shadows or fancy fonts) cloud your message.
• With longer information pieces, provide navigation and context. This means a table of contents and index that provide different views of the content. Doing so will increase access to your content. Each page should have a page number and chapter header for wayfinding.

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