Caroline's Corner: Finding out about Information Design - Maps, Diagrams, Bills (and Websites)

Today, have you: received a gas bill, followed a street sign, taken some medicine, used public transport? Or used an instructional diagram, read nutritional information, or been warned that your next investment could go down as well as up?

These everyday activities are all the concerns of information design. Information designers seek to turn information into artefacts that people can use. They may work on maps, street signs, diagrams, websites - or my personal favourite, forms.

This week, Greenwich in London was the host to the Information Design Conference. We were mostly from the UK, but on a quick flick through the attendees list I spotted Hong Kong and Brazil, Canada and South Africa.

I'd love to tell you about every poster and presentation, but let me just give you a flavour of the diversity we enjoyed.

PACKAGING DIFFERENCES ACROSS CULTURES
Martin Thomas at the University of Leeds is a linguist who is interested in how language works in context. He's chosen to study how packaging gets changed when it is localised for different markets: specifically, for China and the UK. Think of a Kit-Kat, the popular chocolate snack. Now think about how a Kit-Kat might be packaged for different markets. Martin's poster got me interested and I had a look at Kit-Kat's localised marketing websites - for about 30 seconds. China did not appear in their list and the UK's site consisted of a single page saying "The Kit Kash promotion has closed". Maybe there are some insights there into how we could help our clients to manage their localised presences?

PROCEDURAL PICTORIAL SEQUENCES: INSTRUCTIONS FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN'T READ
In the UK and USA, we have a major issue of functional illiteracy: people who don't read well enough to complete every-day tasks such as picking information from timetables. In Brazil, they have a wider problem: 14.6 million people who can't read at all, not even an alphabet. HIV-AIDS is a big problem in Brazil and illiterate people are more vulnerable to it. The government tries to help them by distributing free condoms (both male and female) accompanied by instructions. Carla G. Spinillo and Tiago Costa Maia have been investigating whether these "procedural pictorial sequences" are effective or not. That poses some interesting challenges for experimental realism, and I think we can sympathise with their decision to ask participants to put condoms on body models rather than each other or themselves. Sadly, they concluded that the pictorial sequences didn't have any significant effect on task success. They are now working on how to improve them. As Carla said: "It's not that pictures are good: it depends on the quality of the pictures you are using"

ALIEN MESSAGES IN BRANDED COMMUNICATIONS
Judy Delin has been thinking about 'alien messages'. Not communications from outer space, but all those regulatory requirements that we have to incorporate in our work: financial legal language, statements about use-by dates and ingredients on packaged foods, the requirement to charge tax on some things but not on others. Do you feel the same pain that I do when I think of them? Judy showed us a series of examples that illustrated different approaches to the problem:

- "It's us": taking the messages wholly into the brand and writing them in a way that typifies the brand, for example Innocent Smoothies writing their ingredients lists in the same approachable, friendly style as their other brand messages

- "It's not us. Let's pretend it's not there": making no effort at all to do anything with the messages, for example a typical UK cigarette packet where it is illegal to do anything branded at all with the legal messages

- "It's not us. But what can you do?": incorporating linguistic markers that make it clear that the brand is distancing itself from the legal messages, for example the UK sandwich chain Pret A Manger that displays notices in-store saying "We're sorry. We're legally required to add VAT if you eat in. Nightmare".

- "It's not us. But let's pretend it is": half-heartedly trying to semi-brand the dissonant messages. This one struck home with me because it's probably the one I've fallen into: the trap of not really having a strategy, but somehow sticking the messages somewhere.

As so often when listening to Judy, I came away with a new perspective and some challenges: how should we think of these regulatory requirements? And what's the best advice for our clients?

MORE INFORMATION ON INFORMATION DESIGN
If you'd like to get a flavour of Judy Delin's work, try her book "The Language of Everyday Life: An Introduction" (Sage, 2000, ISBN: 0761960902)

For a good overall introduction to Information Design, go for Ronnie Lipton's new book "The Practical Guide to Information Design" (John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2007, ISBN: 047166295X)

The conference website is here: Information Design Association


If you have any comments or suggestions about this article then please contact Caroline at:

Caroline.Jarrett@Effortmark.co.uk

Caroline Jarrett is a usability consultant specialising in forms and improving web content.

© 2007 Caroline Jarrett, all rights reserved.

Associated Link: Effortmark website

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