9.18.2014

INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION GRAPHICS AND VISUALIZATIONS - WEEK 4

Communication studies seek to understand how people transmit knowledge, share concept, and process information through language.

The study of communication is broad, continually evolving, and spas many disciplines. Designers can gain great insight by studying its tenets; indeed, many now refer to graphic development as “visual communication design.
Numerous lessons from communication theory can be applied directly to information design projects, providing insight on message structuring, language use. In this chapter I got to explore some of these theories with a focus on organization, familiarity, and literacy.

The organization of content directly affects our ability to receive a message.  AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), a persuasive sales model that provide insight for the information designers on the structure, delivery, and acceptance of content, and is most successful when the needs of the customer or end user are fully understood. LATCH is another model for organizing information in to five ways, which are Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, and Hierarchy. When you have limited time to communicate a message, stick to the facts. Place the most important information at the beginning of the story, followed by supporting content and then the detail.

At the start of every information design undertaking, the end user’s needs should be the primary focus. Forecasting their abilities, tools of choice, familiarity with technology, access to media, and so on, will help the design team to determine the appropriate artifact and information structure for clear communication. Combined with germane aesthetics, the message not only gets through, it is memorable.  These are paraphrased from Uncertainty Reduction Theory: 1. When we are uncertain, we actively seek information. 2. Certainty is enhance by similarities, and minimized by differences. 3. That of which we are uncertain becomes less favorable. Apply these concepts to you next design project, it will help reduce uncertainty and influence your end user to actively receive and process knowledge.

Literacy issues are of utmost importance to information designers because they affect the audience’s ability to receive messages. In a knowledge economy, our understanding of the term “literacy” has expanded. It no longer simply refers to reading and writing skills, but also focuses on the ability to find, process, interpret, and apply information. Information literacy describes the ability to locate, evaluate, and apply information, while distinguishing between legitimate and questionable sources, while visual literacy describes the ability to appreciate, analyze, create, and utilize visuals for communication and learning.

Semiotics, the study of signs and symbols as elements of language and communication, informs our ability to interpret images or other sensory input.
Icons are literal visual representations. For example, a drawing of a car looks like an actual car. Symbols are more abstract and may represent things that don’t have physical form. For example, the international symbol for “biohazard” is an abstracted series of circles. Indexes create connection between objects, using that which is easy to describe.


Communication is never static. Information designers must earnestly consider how cultural and contextual associations will affect the end user’s interpretation of a message.

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