Designing Information : Human Factors and Common Sense in Information Design

Joel Katz is an internationally known information designer and authority on the visualization of complex information. He teaches information design at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. His design work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York and the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto. His photography has been exhibited in the United States and Europe. He is coauthor, with Alina Wheeler, of Brand Atlas and is a founding member of AIGA Philadelphia.

10 Introduction

12 1 Aspects of Information Design

The nature of information

42 Lines

44 Unintended consequences of shape

48 The middle value principle

50 Connotations of color

52 Color constraints

56 From color to grayscale

58 Generations of labeling

60 Connections among people

62 Connections in products

64 Consistent and mnemonic notation

66 It’s about time

68 Point of view

70 Navigation: page and screen

74 Interpretation

40 2 Qualitative Issues

Perceptions, conventions, proximity

34 Emotional power

46 (Mis)connotations of form

54 Color and monochrome

78 Information overload

80 Too much information

82 Too many numbers

84 Dimensional comparison

86 The pyramid paradox

88 How big?

90 Substitution

92 Numerical integrity

94 Meaningful numbers

96 Perils of geography

98 Escaping geography

102 Data and form

106 Relative and absolute: ratios of change

108 Multi-axiality

110 Measurement and proportion

114 The grid

118 (Dis)organization and proximity

120 Rational hierarchies

122 An intelligible ballot

124 Understanding audience needs

126 Staging information

128 Synecdoche

130 Is a picture worth 1,000 words?

132 Visualizing regulations

134 Focus and distraction

136 Language and grammar

138 Sans serif

140 Serif

100 Per capita

104 Apples to apples: data scale consistency

116 Organizing response

76 3 Quantitative Issues

Dimensionality, comparisons, numbers, scale

112 4 Structure, Organization, Type

142 Font efficiency

144 Typographic differentiation

146 Size matters (weight, too)

148 Legibility

150 Expressive typography

152 5 Finding Your Way?

Movement, orientation, situational geography

154 What’s up? Heads up

156 Signs and arrows

158 Scale and adjacency

160 A movement network genealogy

162 Map or diagram?

164 Guiding the traveler, then and now

166 Information release sequence

170 Isochronics 1

172 Analogies in painting and sculpture

174 The road is really straight

176 Transitions and familiarity

178 Service, naming and addressing

180 (Ir)rational innovation

182 Perils of alphabetization

184 The view from below—or above

186 Urban open space

188 6 Documents

Stories, inventories, notes

190 Credits

214 Inventory: Paris

216 Inventory: Italy

218 Bibliography

221 Gratitude

222 Index

224 About the author