Publisher's Synopsis
The essential, full–color guide to understanding informationdesign and how to make it better
Featuring hundreds of full–color problems and examples, thiscomprehensive guide discusses and illustrates approaches todesigning complex data and information for meaning, relevance,usability, and clarity. Described and analyzed in lucid text andover 500 illustrations, examples include successful, compromised,and failed designs covering everything from parking signs and roadand statistical maps to explanations of the appropriate use ofline, color, and form. The book provides incisive and usefulinsights into the process of visualizing complex information andcommunicating it in a simple, honest, and accessible form. Some ofthe many topics covered include:
- The nature of information
- How we perceive, communicate, and understand
- Dimensionality, proximity, numbers, and scale
- Organization and typography
- Movement, orientation, and situational geography
Praise for Designing Information
"This is a terrific book.
"I began working with Joel Katz 40 years ago. We learned fromobserving each other, which allowed us to discover maps that leadto understanding.
"This volume is just that.
"The journey from not knowing to knowing is from ignorance tounderstanding, from complexity to clarification. This book was doneby one of the few who have mastered what I used to call′information architecture,′ and what I perhaps should have called′understanding architecture.′
"The book itself is a diagram of clarification, containing hundredsof examples of work by those who favor the communication ofinformation over style and academic postulation and those whodon′t.
"Many blurbs such as this are written without a thorough reading ofthe book. Not so in this case. I read it and love it.
"I suggest you do the same."
Richard Saul Wurman