To forecast the future, it is important to have an
understanding of the past. Cave painting and petroglyphs are the first examples
we have of visual communication. It is difficult, in our visually dominated
culture, to comprehend the importance of those first markings. Visual records,
whether made for practical or spiritual purposes, transformed the way humans
shared ideas, beliefs, and experiences.
Later on, the first writing we can recognize is cuneiform
script, the Sumerian pictographic writing system. Like image- and mark-making, writing is skill
that modern humans take for grant. Writing provides a more precise means to
share and distribute ideas among a large population. Writing enable us to
record history, exchange information beyond geographic boundaries, communicate
knowledge to future generations, and build upon the ideas of the past.
Maps, or cartography, are one of the earliest forms of
information design. In the past, The Romans created accurate maps of newly
conquered lands to manage the construction of roads and property right for
their empire, for example. Advances in measurement and production technology
led to more detail accurate map. Today, highly accurate satellite imagery is
available to any Internet user via tools like Google Earth. Satellite
navigation system are also available in automobiles and mobile phones.
William Playfair, Scottish engineer and political economist,
believed that the visualization of data was easier to understand than written
words. He created line graphs, bar graphs, and pie. In present, data sets could
be compared easily.
“Words make division, pictures make connection”, Neurath,
Austrian sociologist believes so. He created ISOTYPE, which stand for
International System of Typographic Picture Education. It impacts on
contemporary information design. Many of the symbols that we see in airports,
museums, and public transit have their origins in this idea.
As technology develop, tons websites have been created.
Websites have changed the way we do everything: conduct business, consumes,
media, shop, interact with friends and family, maybe even find spouse.
Designers were able to harness to potential of this new tool and forge it into
something people could use. Fuel for the revolution was the practical
application of user-centered graphic interface. Websites started to look, feel,
and function well in familiar contexts; you could see a picture of sweater,
zoom in, for a closer look, and place it into shopping cart to make your purchase.
Technology is only half of the equation. Lacking the value created by the
information design community, public acceptance of the web might have been
uphill struggle.
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