Week2: Reading Homework (Chapter 2: Part1)

1. Summary of information, topics covered

The first part of the chapter 2 reading is about “Politics, Diplomacy, and Consensus” and “”Wrangling Audience and Content.” First, it is very important for designers to understand their clients in regards to their politics, goals, and agendas. Brain storming the project, getting to know the project team and timeline before you start the project is also important. You have to know about the audience of the project and understand the emotional and physical requirements of how you want your audience to respond and interact. The chapter gives you examples of good ways of organizing content such as an alphanumeric/numbering systems, and using pull quotes, captions, timeline graphics, frequent subheads, short text line lengths, and color is also very helpful too. “The written word is a key component of information design.” Using plain language that has clear, concise, and meaningful information for readers is key. Using type hierarchy is an amazing way to create clarity.

2. What real world experience have you had in your life with this kind of content organization, aside from infographics? What real world experience do you have with clients, client politics, as discussed in this chapter -in or out of design related business?

• When I was working for an international phone company, one of the customers couldn’t figure out how to make a phone call using our service. It took us a few days with several phone discussions with him to find out what the problem was. He dialed the right codes, password, and phone number, but never pushed the dial button to connect his phone call. You never know how foolish your client could be, and it could take a lot more time to figure their problems if you forget to tell them the basic directions of a making phone call, that you have to push “DIAL” to make any phone call!
• When I had an assignment to find a bad website, I realized how important it is for us designers to know hierarchy in order to create clarity of information. I really couldn’t find anyway around some of the websites, and it even took me time to find the title of the page!

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

https://academictech.doit.wisc.edu/ORFI/wds/Modules/organizing.htm

http://wiki.sla.org/display/SLA2009/Creating+Pages+and+Organizing+Content

They are all talking about importance of using hierarchy to organize your information.