Week1: Reading Homework (Chapter 1)

1. Summary of information, topics covered

Chapter one talks about what information design is. Using elements of writing, editing, graphics, and illustration can help us understand and communicate information better. The chapter also explains roles and job titles of information. We see information design every day and everywhere; books, on the street, and devices such as PCs, cell phones and etc., and it is needed more everyday. Myself included, there isn’t a day I do not go online for some reason. We always need better information design, but especially in the age of globalization we require effective signs, so people from different places are able to understand. We must learn to make even the most complex data into something simple. We designers must understand the main focus of information or the message of the piece. This chapter also talks about direct response design, litigation graphics, civic policy and information design. It is reassuring to know I have more opportunities in the field I am studying. I really found the following quote insightful, “ What we need is not more information but the ability to present the right information to the right people at the right time, in the most effective and efficient form”-by Robert E Horn, because I think it is pretty much summarizes what this chapter is talking about.

2. Add two anecdotes of “real world stories from the trenches” like what are listed in the preface that you have experienced.

1. When one of my friends came to visit me in Seattle she crossed the street when the “no crossing” sign was displayed with her hand raised high in the air in the middle of busy downtown traffic before I was able to stop her. In Japan, every child learns to check right, left, right again, and then raise your hand high to cross the street, so drivers can see you better. We cross the street when it is green and stop when it is red, but I guess it was a little confusing for her that our red sign is an image of a hand. The hand sign means stop here, but she thought it meant raise your hand, then cross.
2. It was very confusing for me when men and women restroom signs were in Spanish without any other visual help. I understand now, but I didn’t know much English at the time and didn’t know one Spanish word! Do you know which one of sign below is for man or woman?

3. Two URLs that relate to the reading with an explanation of their relevance.

http://www.writerswebsiteplanner.com/design/info_design.htmlThis page is explaining what is good info. Design in one page.

http://www.cactusflower.org/information-design-for-the-webThis page is about Info. Design for the Web. The visual examples help me to understand, and it explain principles of Info. Design such as data richness, the smallest effective difference, and parallelism.