Signs at stations, emergency-exit symbols, and smartphone app screens——our surroundings are full of ways to make information easy to understand. This is information design. In this lesson, we will learn its three basic methods: "abstraction, visualization, and structuring."
What Is Information Design?
Information design is the process of organizing information and designing it so that it can be communicated clearly according to the purpose and audience, for effective communication and problem solving. The goal is not to "decorate attractively," but to ensure that the information is correctly conveyed to the other person. Even when the content is the same, the best expression changes depending on the audience (children, older people, or foreigners) and the situation (being in a hurry or seeing it for the first time). The three representative methods of information design are abstraction, visualization, and structuring.
Abstraction — Removing Unnecessary Information
Abstraction means removing unnecessary details while keeping only the essential information to be communicated. A representative example is a pictogram (a picture symbol). The emergency-exit symbol discards details such as a person's face and clothing and retains only the essence of "a person running outside," allowing its meaning to be understood instantly regardless of language or age. Maps are another good example: route maps ignore actual distances and terrain and show only the connections between stations, focusing on the purpose of transferring trains.
Visualization — Making Invisible Things Visible
Visualization means converting information that is difficult to understand from numbers or words alone into visual forms such as diagrams and graphs. When visualizing data, it is important to choose a graph suited to the purpose. A bar graph is suitable for comparing quantities, a line graph for changes over time, a pie chart for proportions of a whole, and a scatter plot for the relationship (correlation) between two quantities. Infographics, which represent numerical data visually, are widely used in news and public relations to communicate statistics intuitively. However, graphs can give an exaggerated impression through techniques such as beginning an axis partway through, so both creators and readers must be careful.
Structuring — Giving Information a Structure
Structuring means arranging information by organizing the relationships among its parts. There are three basic patterns. ①Sequence (arranging items by time or stages, like instructions); ②Hierarchy (tree structure) (branching from broad categories to middle and small categories; website menus are typical); ③Parallel arrangement (placing equal items side by side, as in a comparison table). In writing, adding headings, using bullet points, and emphasizing important words are also forms of structuring. Readers use structure as a clue to build their understanding while moving between the overall picture and details.
- The purpose of information design is not decoration but "communicating correctly to the other person."
- Abstraction = keeping only the essence and discarding details (pictograms and route maps).
- Visualization = conversion into visual expressions. Choose graphs according to purpose (comparison = bar, change = line, proportion = pie, correlation = scatter).
- Structuring = organizing relationships among information using sequence, hierarchy, and parallel arrangement.
- The best design changes according to the audience and purpose. First consider "who, what, and how to communicate."
Practice Questions
- Explain what "abstraction" means in information design, using a pictogram as an example.
- Choose the most suitable graph for each of the following data and explain why: (a) monthly changes in average temperature over one year (b) the breakdown of students' commuting methods (c) the relationship between study time and test scores.
- Name the three basic patterns of "structuring" and state which pattern a school website menu represents.
Answers and Explanations
- Answer: Abstraction means expressing information by keeping only the essential information to be communicated and removing unnecessary details. For example, an emergency-exit pictogram discards details such as a person's face, clothing, and age, retaining only the essential form of a person running toward an exit. Thus, its meaning can be conveyed instantly to anyone regardless of language or culture.
Explanation: Include both sides: "discarding details" and "retaining the essence." The key cause-and-effect relationship is that discarding details allows information to spread quickly and broadly. - Answer: (a) Line graph——because it is suitable for showing changes over time. (b) Pie chart——because it is suitable for showing each item's proportion of the whole. (c) Scatter plot——because it is suitable for showing the relationship (correlation) between two quantities.
Explanation: Be able to give reasons for the correspondence: change = line, proportion = pie, correlation = scatter, comparison = bar. A band graph is also correct for (b). - Answer: The three patterns are sequence, hierarchy (tree structure), and parallel arrangement. A school website menu, such as "School Information" with "History" and "Principal's Greeting" beneath it, is a hierarchical structure that branches from broad categories to smaller ones.
Explanation: Website navigation is a typical example of a hierarchical structure. A breadcrumb trail (Home > School Information > History) shows where one is within the hierarchy.