ENGL 3235 - Information Design
E-Books, Journals, & Databases
Data Visualization for Business Decisions by
This workbook is intended for business analysts who wish to improve their skills in creating data visuals, presentations, and report illustrations used to support business decisions. It is a qualitative lab to develop the power of visualization and discrimination. It does not require the reader to modify charts, but to analyze and describe what would improve charts. In a set of controlled exercises, the reader is taken through the eighteen elements of six dimensions of analyzing and improving charts, visuals and reports used to communicate business concepts. Includes companion files with videos, sample files, and slides used in examples from thebook. Features: Includes eighteen labs, three for each of the six major dimensions of data visuals: Story, Signs, Purpose, Perception, Method, and Charts Uses a comprehensive RAIKS (Rapid Assessment of Individual Knowledge and Skills) survey to judge readers' progress before and after using the text Provides a capstone exercise to review the aggregate analysis and final results for the two analyzed charts Companion files that include video tutorials and all of the sample files and templates used in the book's examples The companion files are available online by emailing the publisher with proof of purchase at info@merclearning.com.
ISBN: 1683925955Publication Date: 2020-07-01
Data Visualization in Society by
Today we are witnessing an increased use of data visualization in society. Across domains such as work, education and the news, various forms of graphs, charts and maps are used to explain, convince and tell stories. In an era in which more and more data are produced and circulated digitally, and digital tools make visualization production increasingly accessible, it is important to study the conditions under which such visual texts are generated, disseminated and thought to be of societal benefit. This book is a contribution to the multi-disciplined and multi-faceted conversation concerning the forms, uses and roles of data visualization in society. Do data visualizations do 'good' or 'bad'? Do they promote understanding and engagement, or do they do ideological work, privileging certain views of the world over others? The contributions in the book engage with these core questions from a range of disciplinary perspectives.
ISBN: 9463722904Publication Date: 2020-04-16
Dealing with Data Pocket Primer by
As part of the best-selling Pocket Primerseries, this book is designed to introduce the reader to the basic concepts of managing data using a variety of computerlanguages and applications. It is intended to be a fast-paced introduction to some basic features of data management and covers statistical concepts, data-related techniques, features of Pandas, RDBMS, SQL, NLP topics, Matplotlib, and data visualization. Companion files with source code and color figures are available. FEATURES: Covers Pandas, RDBMS, NLP, data cleaning, SQL, and data visualization Introduces probability and statistical concepts Features numerous code samples throughout Includes companion files with source code and figures
ISBN: 1683928180Publication Date: 2022-05-04
Digital Visual Literacy by
Designed to introduce visual literacy to instructional librarians, this book shows librarians how to make visual literacy relevant and engaging by framing it as a digital skill. Millions of images are uploaded to social media every day, and students are increasingly being asked to participate in such image-rich research projects as websites and blogs. Image manipulation and photo editing are commonplace, but the visual literacy skills needed to detect that kind of misinformation aren't. Students need help learning how to find, evaluate, and use images in an ethical and effective manner. Digital Visual Literacy is designed to introduce visual literacy to instructional librarians. This concise introduction teaches visual literacy as a digital skill, complete with digital humanities-based workshops and assignments to make instruction informative and engaging. It covers all aspects of visual literacy, from copyright to image evaluation. Each chapter clearly explains visual literacy standards and proficiencies and offers practical instructional assignments, in-class demonstrations, and more through the use of digital humanities tools.
ISBN: 9781440875182Publication Date: 2022-04-22
Foundations of Data Visualization by
This is the first book that focuses entirely on the fundamental questions in visualization. Unlike other existing books in the field, it contains discussions that go far beyond individual visual representations and individual visualization algorithms. It offers a collection of investigative discourses that probe these questions from different perspectives, including concepts that help frame these questions and their potential answers, mathematical methods that underpin the scientific reasoning of these questions, empirical methods that facilitate the validation and falsification of potential answers, and case studies that stimulate hypotheses about potential answers while providing practical evidence for such hypotheses. Readers are not instructed to follow a specific theory, but their attention is brought to a broad range of schools of thoughts and different ways of investigating fundamental questions. As such, the book represents the by now most significant collective effort for gathering a large collection of discourses on the foundation of data visualization. Data visualization is a relatively young scientific discipline. Over the last three decades, a large collection of computer-supported visualization techniques have been developed, and the merits and benefits of using these techniques have been evidenced by numerous applications in practice. These technical advancements have given rise to the scientific curiosity about some fundamental questions such as why and how visualization works, when it is useful or effective and when it is not, what are the primary factors affecting its usefulness and effectiveness, and so on. This book signifies timely and exciting opportunities to answer such fundamental questions by building on the wealth of knowledge and experience accumulated in developing and deploying visualization technology in practice.
ISBN: 9783030344436Publication Date: 2020-08-12
A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication by
A comprehensive history of data visualization--its origins, rise, and effects on the ways we think about and solve problems. With complex information everywhere, graphics have become indispensable to our daily lives. Navigation apps show real-time, interactive traffic data. A color-coded map of exit polls details election balloting down to the county level. Charts communicate stock market trends, government spending, and the dangers of epidemics. A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication tells the story of how graphics left the exclusive confines of scientific research and became ubiquitous. As data visualization spread, it changed the way we think. Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer take us back to the beginnings of graphic communication in the mid-seventeenth century, when the Dutch cartographer Michael Florent van Langren created the first chart of statistical data, which showed estimates of the distance from Rome to Toledo. By 1786 William Playfair had invented the line graph and bar chart to explain trade imports and exports. In the nineteenth century, the "golden age" of data display, graphics found new uses in tracking disease outbreaks and understanding social issues. Friendly and Wainer make the case that the explosion in graphical communication both reinforced and was advanced by a cognitive revolution: visual thinking. Across disciplines, people realized that information could be conveyed more effectively by visual displays than by words or tables of numbers. Through stories and illustrations, A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication details the 400-year evolution of an intellectual framework that has become essential to both science and society at large.
ISBN: 9780674975231Publication Date: 2021-06-08
Information Design by
The goal of communication-oriented design of messages should always be clarity of communication. In information design the task of the sender is actually not completed until the receivers have received and understood the intended messages. Information Design - An introduction includes chapters explaining verbo-visual communication, information and message design principles, design processes, and design tools. These chapters can be seen as a general framework for production of information and learning materials. Based on theories for verbo-visual communication this book presents several practial guidelines for the use of text, symbols, visuals, typography, and layout in information and learning materials. Rune Pettersson is Professor of Information Design at the Department of Innovation, Design and Product Development (IDP) at Mälardalen University in Eskilstuna, Sweden.
ISBN: 9027296960Publication Date: 2002-12-19
Information Design for the Common Good by
This book explores the increasing altruistic impulse of the design community to address some of the world's most difficult problems including social, political, environmental, and global health causes at the local, national, and global scale. Each chapter strategically combines theory and practice to examine how to identify causes and locate accurate data, truth and integrity in information design, the information design/data visualization process, understanding audiences, crafting meaningful narratives, and measuring the impact of a design. A variety of international case studies and interviews with practitioners illustrate the challenges and impact of designing for social agendas. These range from traditional media outlets like The New York Times and The Guardian, popular science organizations like National Geographic and Scientific America, to health institutes like The World Health Organization and The Center for Disease Control. This book allows the novice information designer to create compelling human-centered information narratives which make a difference in our world.
ISBN: 9781350117259Publication Date: 2021-09-09
Information Design Unbound by
As everyday tasks grow more confusing, and as social and global problems grow more complex, the information designer's role in bringing clarity has reached a new level of importance. In order to have a positive impact, they must go beyond conventional approaches to uncover real needs, make insightful connections, and develop effective solutions. Information Design Unbound provides a clear, engaging introduction to the field, and prepares students to be strategic thinkers and visual problem solvers who can confidently make sense in a changing world. Sheila Pontis and Michael Babwahsingh present a holistic view of information design, synthesizing decades of research, cross-disciplinary knowledge, and emerging practices. The book opens by laying a foundation in the field, first painting the bigger picture of what it is and how it originated, before explaining the scientific and cultural dimensions of how people perceive and understand visual information. A discussion of professional practices, ethical considerations, and the expanding scale of challenges sheds light on the day-to-day work of information designers today. Detailed chapters then delve into the four areas that are integral to all types of information design work: visual thinking, research, sensemaking, and design. The final section of the book puts everything together, with detailed project walk-throughs in areas such as icon design, instructions, wayfinding, organizational strategy, and healthcare system change. Written and designed with students' needs in mind, this book brings information design fundamentals to life: exercises allow students to put lessons directly into practice, case studies demonstrate how information designers think and work, and generous illustrations clarify concepts in a visually engaging way. Information Design Unbound helps beginning designers build the mindset and skillset to navigate visual communication challenges wherever they may arise.
ISBN: 9781350054134Publication Date: 2023-11-02
Information Design Workbook, Revised and Updated by
Information Design Workbook, Revised and Updated takes a methodical, comprehensive, approach to conveying the fundamentals of effective, innovative information design. With loads of new case studies demonstrating the latest approaches, you'll learn about the history, theory, criticism, technology and media, process, method, and practice of information design as well as learn how to create visually compelling and meaningful graphics. Opening with a brief history followed by an instructive breakdown of the discipline, get an intimate understanding of the complexities of crafting information designto effectively improve communication both functionally and aesthetically. You'll learn every aspect of the discovery process, including how to work within your client's business structure, create a project timeline, identify and prioritize possible audiences, construct a creative brief, and explore personas (user profiles) and scenarios. Then, explore best practices and get practical tips on creating planning documents and testing your design. An overview of key design principles--including color, type styling, structure, and graphic elements--shows you how to apply these basic tools to develop powerful information design solutions. A wide range of case studies from premier design firms around the world illustrate how all the complex considerations and techniques outlined in the first half of the book come into play. The author critiques and explains why each design is successful in terms of formal quality (Aesthetics) and function (How does it improve communication?). The case studies include cutting edge examples of printed matter, information graphics, interactive experiences, environmental design, as well as experimental projects. Using these principles and methods as a foundation and the real-world examples as a springboard, you can learn to execute well-crafted, functional, and aesthetically beautiful information design.
ISBN: 9781631598050Publication Date: 2021-12-14
Reframing Information Architecture by
Information architecture has changed dramatically since the mid-1990s and earlier conceptions of the world and the internet being different and separate have given way to a much more complex scenario in the present day. In the post-digital world that we now inhabit the digital and the physical blend easily and our activities and usage of information takes place through multiple contexts and via multiple devices and unstable, emergent choreographies. Information architecture now is steadily growing into a channel- or medium-specific multi-disciplinary framework, with contributions coming from architecture, urban planning, design and systems thinking, cognitive science, new media, anthropology. All these have been heavily reshaping the practice: conversations about labelling, websites, and hierarchies are replaced by conversations about sense-making, place-making, design, architecture, cross media, complexity, embodied cognition and their application to the architecture of information spaces as places we live in in an increasingly large part of our lives. Via narratives, frameworks, references, approaches and case-studies this book explores these changes and offers a way to reconceptualize the shifting role and nature of information architecture where information permeates digital and physical space, users are producers and products are increasingly becoming complex cross-channel or multi-channel services.
ISBN: 3319064924Publication Date: 2014-07-15
Visual Literacy by
What does it mean to be visually literate? Does it mean different things in the arts and the sciences? In the West, in Asia, or in developing nations? If we all need to become "visually literate," what does that mean in practical terms? The essays gathered here examine a host of issues surrounding "the visual," exploring national and regional ideas of visuality and charting out new territories of visual literacy that lie far beyond art history, such as law and chemistry. With an afterword by Christopher Crouch, this groundbreaking collection brings together the work of major art and visual studies scholars and critics to explore what impact the new concept of "visual literacy" will have on the traditional field of art history. Contributors: Matthias Bruhn, Vera Dünkel, Jonathan Crary, Christopher Crouch, Peter Dallow, James Elkins, Henrik Enquist, W.J.T. Mitchell, Richard K. Sherwin, Susan Shifrin, Jon Simons, Barbara Maria Stafford, William Washabaugh
ISBN: 1135905320Publication Date: 2009-09-11
Web Style Guide, 4th Edition by
A classic reference book on user interface design and graphic design for web sites, updated to reflect a rapidly changing market Consistently praised as the best volume on classic elements of web site design, Web Style Guide has sold many thousands of copies and has been published around the world. This new revised edition confirms Web Style Guide as the go-to authority in a rapidly changing market. As web designers move from building sites from scratch to using content management and aggregation tools, the book's focus shifts away from code samples and toward best practices, especially those involving mobile experience, social media, and accessibility. An ideal reference for web site designers in corporations, government, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions, the book explains established design principles and covers all aspects of web design--from planning to production to maintenance. The guide also shows how these principles apply in web design projects whose primary concerns are information design, interface design, and efficient search and navigation.
ISBN: 0300211651Publication Date: 2016-08-23
Peer-Reviewed Academic Journals
Select Academic Journal Articles
*Kindly note that this is not a comprehensive list of academic journal articles germane to your course. Rather, consider it a primer to discover more resources.*
- How the Preattentive Process is Exploited in Practical Information Visualization Design: A Review. his review aims to analyze the recent literature to find how the preattentive visual process is currently used in information visualization, particularly to improve the cognitive process in chart comprehension (i.e., perceptual effectiveness). The purpose of our literature review is to provide an overview of how concepts related to the preattentive process are used pragmatically in recent research. We searched different bibliography sources between 2010 and 2021, getting 29 articles that fit the review focus. In general, we discovered that the research work on exploiting the preattentive process in information visualization is currently not thoroughly explored. The main contribution of the paper is the analysis of the papers, from which we identified two categories of research directions according to the primary uses of preattentive concepts: "preattentive attributes as design components," and "the preattentive process as a measuring tool," with a gap between these two approaches. The review also highlighted two limitations in the current research literature: most works tend to focus on a particular chart type, only, with difficult to generalize results, and the manipulation of preattentive attributes is done implicitly, without providing to the graph designer the suitable awareness over the design decisions impact. We finally present a proposal about how to use the knowledge about the preattentive process in the first stages of design in information visualization to start closing the gap mentioned above with the graph designer.
- Dualities of Form: Considerations of Functional and Narrative Aspects of Design for Data Visualization Design expertise's true value is its capacity to render complex information understandable and compelling. To make informed decisions, lay audiences depend on the clarity and resonance of data displays. But these, as created by scientists, journalists, and policy researchers, often contradict principles understood by designers to effectively and convincingly communicate data through visual means. Design education and practice insist that visual form conveys the nature of content, or data, on both objectively functional and narrative levels. This article addresses established best practices for creating clear, functional data displays, using form to clarify data's relevance and reveal its intricacy without distortion. It further advocates exploiting form's narrative potential—to qualify and contextualize information, thus enhancing how viewers internalize data, accept its veracity, and invest interest in its meaning. The author posits balancing this formal duality within data visualizations to best engage and resonate with lay audiences, and so catalyze their participation in the world around them.
- Data visualization in the time of coronavirus Currently, we observe a proliferation of data visualizations about Covid-19 in the media, which makes it a convenient time to study the topic from the perspective of different disciplines, including information design and mathematics. If, on the one hand, the abundance of such pandemic representations would already be a legitimate reason to address the issue, on the other hand, it is not the central motivation of the present discussion. The uniqueness of the epidemiological phenomenon that we are experiencing highlights new aspects regarding the production and use of data visualizations, one of which is its diversification beyond counting and visual representation of events related to the virus spread. In this sense, the article discusses, through the analysis of examples, three different approaches for this type of schematic representation, namely: visualization of hypothetical data, visualizations based on secondary data, and visualization for social criticism and self-reflection. Ultimately, we can argue that design contributes to the production of data visualizations that can help people to understand the causes and implications involved in the new coronavirus and encourage civic responsibility through self-care and the practice of social distancing
- Information Design Theories Information design has practical and theoretical components. As an academic discipline we may view information design as a combined discipline, a practical theory, or as a theoretical practice. So far information design has incorporated facts, influences, methods, practices, principles, processes, strategies, and tools from a large number of disciplines. Information design also needs to incorporate theories, or parts of theories, from other disciplines. This essay presents seven information design theories with more than hundred facts, hypotheses, and postulates.
- Social commitment and challenges of information design. This article discusses the social commitment and challenges of information design. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the context and needs of the intended audience when designing artifacts and graphic representations. The article presents studies that address challenges in verbal graphic encoding, such as the effect of letter shape on recognition and variations in visual instructions for writing Chinese characters. It also discusses the need for accessible artifacts, particularly in biodiversity maps, and highlights the use of technology for increased communicative effectiveness and accessibility. Additionally, the article explores the role of design in creating accessible informational artifacts and emphasizes the importance of advancing information design social responsibility.
- Technical communication or information design?: A merging of professions The impact of technological and scientific innovations combined with consumer demands for clear, usable product information have changed the core competencies that technical communicators now need. In short, the job title, 'technical communicator' does not reflect what contemporary practitioners do. Despite the debate over the various meanings and 'ownership' of information design, the title, 'information designer,' appears to be the 'best fit' to describe the new profile of technical communicators. A study of contemporary New Zealand technical communicators reveals a shift similar to that of practitioners in the United States to redefine their roles as information designers.
- The Money Machine: Information design + persuasion design = Behavior change regarding baby-boomer wealth-management. he Money Machine project researched, analyzed, designed, and evaluated powerful ways to improve 'baby boomers’' behavior regarding their personal wealth-management. The project intends to persuade and motivate people to reduce their asset consumption and increase the longevity of available funds by means of a well-designed mobile smartphone/tablet concept prototype application (with associated Web portal). The Money Machine combines information design/visualization with persuasion design. This article explains the development of the Money Machine’s user interface, information design, information visualization, and use of persuasion design; showcases the results; and considers the next steps of research and development.
- Language quake: Symbolic activity in information design. This article discuses the symbolic activity in information design. The creative use of language can best be captured by the neologism language quake. It denotes the analogy between seismic activity and the shaking with which figurative language can provide communication. Metaphor is a particular good example of a language quake. These language quakes have an important educational value: based on constructivist learning theories, the enhancement of symbolic communication allows to stimulate divergent thought and to achieve individual growing, in-group collaboration, and cooperation among perception, cognition, language and emotion, because it fits multisensory practice, an inherent and natural experience individuals perform since their childhood.
- Information Design: A Bibliography Albers and Lisberg present an annotated bibliography of 17 essential works on information design chosen by members of the InfoDesign e-mail list.
- ABI/INFORM Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowBusiness and management articles (more...).
A note about interdisciplinary searching: In today's interconnected world, the ability to think across disciplines is crucial, especially in the field of information design. This course encourages you to draw from various fields such as graphic design, psychology, computer science, and communication to create effective and engaging information. By integrating diverse perspectives, you can enhance your ability to present complex ideas clearly and creatively, which is why ProQuest Central, as opposed to English-specific databases, is recommended. This interdisciplinary approach not only enriches your understanding of how information can be structured and conveyed but also equips you with versatile skills that are highly valued in a range of careers. Embrace the opportunity to explore different disciplines and discover innovative ways to communicate information effectively!