Information design

The search for clarity and synthesis

Technological advances have an unintended consequence: while in many ways they make things easier, in other ways they make things more complicated and difficult to understand.

Information design is an emerging discipline that brings order and synthesis to help simplify complexity.

Wayfinding systems

Information designers work hard to design systems to make it easier for you to find your way. Wayfinding includes signs, maps and other cues that help ensure people don't get lost or confused.

The London Underground

Perhaps the most famous wayfinding system is the one in the London subway system -- arguably the best one ever designed.

Maps

Maps are portable wayfinding systems that can serve all kinds of purposes. A map can help you navigate anything: a building, a hiking trail, a road network, even other peoples' imaginations.

Work flow design

Workflow design is the discipline of designing systems and processes that support better and more effective work. Often, the goal of workflow design is to improve the way people interact with technology, so they can be more productive.

Flow charts

Part of workflow design involves mapping existing processes and looking for ways to make them more productive or efficient. Flowcharts are a set of graphic conventions for visually describing processes.

Diagrams

Diagrams show how things work or how they are constructed. A flowchart is a type of diagram.

Charts and graph design

Charts and graphs are methods for visually describing numerical information. Good chart and graph design reveals patterns that would otherwise be hard to discern, to help people make better decisions.

What's the difference between a chart and a graph? Asking this question in a crowd of information designers could cause a fistfight.

Product design

Product designers design the things we use every day. You know the difference between good and bad product design:

Well-designed products are aesthetically pleasing and easy to use; they make you coo with delight.

Badly-designed products make you say "#@$%&!."

Package design

Every product comes in a package. A great package design communicates: it showcases the product, highlights its benefuits, and helps you understand enough about it to buy it in the first place.

Interaction design

Interaction design is the design of how we interact with products, software and services. The part of the product we work with to use it is called the interface.

For example the primary interface of a car is the dashboard, because it connects the driver to the car's functions. A software interface is the part of the software we see and interact with -- it's the way that we access the computer's functionality.

Good interaction design makes people happier and more productive.

Bad interaction design can result in harm and in extreme cases can even kill.

Interfaces gone wrong

Instruction design

Have you ever bought a product that required "some assembly" and found yourself cursing the manufacturer? Chances are your frustration was caused by a lack of instructional design.

Instructional designers design directions, instructions and other learning experiences such as courses, training materials and user manuals.