Review

Reviewed Work(s): Information Design as Principled Action: Making Information

Accessible, Relevant, Understandable, and Useable by Jorge Frascara
Review by: Stan Ruecker
Source: Design Issues, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Summer 2016), pp. 118-119
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24916454
Accessed: 09-05-2023 08:01 +00:00

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agents to transform organization culture. The com information design is, what it does, how people go
munication gap between the two disciplines of about it, and how it can be evaluated. Following his
design and marketing has to be bridged. Efforts in own precepts, he demonstrates repeatedly how the
this direction in organizations and education sys knowledge that has been created through various
tems are slower than desired. forms of research (design included) can contribute to
better information design.
Furthermore, he clearly expresses his belief that
Stan Ruecker good information design is the right of every citizen;
it is not an option but a necessity. With that in mind,
Information Design as Principled Action: Making
it is perhaps not surprising that he calls for a focus in
Information Accessible, Relevant, Understandable, and
Useable by Jorge Frascara (Editor) (Champaign, IL: the immediate future on more resources for putting
what is already well established into widespread
Common Ground Publishing, 2015), ISBN 1612297854,
328 pages, illustrated, softcover ($35). practice.
The next section of five essays is titled "Concep
tual Frames." It deals with the potential for informa
Once in a while, a collection comes along that offers
tion design to directly improve people's lives. Here
some insight into the thinking of a generationwe ofhave Kyun, Kalyuga, and Sweller on the use of
scholars. This is such a book. Although it consists
worked examples to help people with ill-structured
primarily of case studies, the importance is not so
problems; Wright on information design helping
much in the content of those studies as in the kinds
people in the workplace; Simlinger on assisting peo
of thinking that were done, the quality of that think
ple to attain goals; Egger on the design of inclusive
ing, and the depth of insight revealed. This is a snap
information spaces; and Engelhardt describing how
shot of how information designers with decades of
Otto and Marie Neurath and Hans Rosling used
experience address their projects. In some instances,
information design to raise public awareness about
the text shows the process of their thought; in others,
social issues. As a fan for many years of isotype and
it provides a summary of principles. Information
Gapminder, I thought pairing them for comparison
designers of subsequent generations now have a
was interesting, especially in the context of their
valuable resource. The book also includes a selection
shared belief in the power of statistics when
of papers from this younger group, demonstrating
expressed visually for social good. In his paper,
not only their own high quality but also the value of
Simlinger strikes on two themes that resonate
the work they are building on.
throughout the collection: his phrase "high-quality
The well-known names begin with Jorge Fras
information empowers people to attain goals" and
cara, who has been an international leader in the field
the need for interdisciplinarity in achieving that
for more than forty years. He has brought together a
quality of information.
pantheon of other experts, many of them now in
The following section—"Historical Over
their seventies, to create an indispensable set of
views"—gives us three papers with some thoughts on
twenty-two essays. The book is clearly a labor of love,
the need for change and how it happens. The essay
as Frascara points out in the preface, where he
by Winkler expresses that need in no uncertain terms.
describes it as an homage to the growth of the field in
Bakker provides a study of Icograda from the mid
the 1970s, when a new generation of information
1960s to the mid-1980s. Holmes gives a case history of
designers discovered the joy (his word) of developing
new knowledge and techniques and helping people information graphic developed for use in an essay
an

access and understand information that is relevant on American alcoholism that was published in 2008
and usable. by American History Magazine. Following Holmes's

The essays, divided into five sections, varythinking through the development of the graphic pro
dramatically in length, from five pages to fifty.vides a rare insight into the series of decisions that a
Appropriately, the longest essay is the first one,senior information designer makes. These include,
surprisingly perhaps, the use of humor: "a valuable
where Frascara explains his understanding of what

Designlssues: Volume32,Number3 Summer2016 doi:10.1162/DESI_r_00410

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tool that is too often overlooked by designers."
In this instance of practice, the fourth section
continues with eight case studies: Marcus deals with
mobile persuasion; Shriver examines redesign for
bureaucracy; van der Waarde and Spinillo discuss
visual information for medicines in Europe; Sless
addresses the regulatory dimension; Waller and
Waller deal with government letters; Spinillo and
Smythe tackle product instructions in Brazil; Noel
explores typography for aphasia; and Shakespear
writes about design as a catalyst for change. Exam
ples of practice and insight make them well worth
reading, even for those not interested in the subject
of each case.
An excellent example from this section is the
essay by van der Waarde and Spinillo, which pro
vides two clear vignettes to demonstrate how legisla
tive requirements contain assumptions that are not
necessarily helpful to people who need to use infor
mation associated with medicines. The short essay
also offers a way forward, namely, to shift the focus
in legislative language from characteristics of the
documents to quality of use, from "clear and under
standable" to "enabling people to act appropriately."
Although it comes up in the context of European leg
islation about medicine information, the fundamen
tal importance of this paradigm shift is useful to
keep in mind in any information design project. As
Sless points out in the following essay: "we have dis
covered that regulators find the shift from content to
performance very difficult."
Schriver similarly provides a hard-earned
piece of advice for information designers working
with large organizations—reminiscent of a central
message of Kim Erwin's Communicating the New: Meth
ods to Shape and Accelerate Innovation (2013)—which is
to engage internal stakeholders early and often.
The fifth and final section contains five case
studies of design education. This is an aspect of the
field that could easily have been overlooked, but it is
important, because this is where new colleagues
emerge. The papers include Aitken, Joy, and Dyck
on visualization for health care; Moldenhauer on
maps as stories; Carlson and Hicks on the impor
tance of teaching about context; Frascara on learn
ing and memory; and Lenk on simple visual narra
tions. Lenk's essay in particular outlines what seems
Design/ssi/es: Volume 32, Number 3 Summer 2016
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an excellent pedagogical strategy, where students
produce the same information (e.g., how to build
a kite) through prototyping, text instructions,
and visual instructions, demonstrating firsthand
the strengths and weaknesses of each form of com
munication.
As may be unavoidable in a collection of this
kind, there is some bemoaning of the current state of
information design. Designers just making their
entry into the field would be justified in feeling
alienated or discouraged when reading some of the
authors' pronouncements: that visual designers are
not interested in the information they work with, that
designers are aware of challenges but not adequately
prepared to address them, that design has lost sight
of its principal mission and become enervated. This
kind of language reminds me of a story that Kurt
Vonnegut mentions, by E. B. White, where the royal
astronomer goes to the king to explain that the uni
verse is ending. For decades, he says, he has been
watching the stars, and now they are starting to go
out. He is not aware that his own eyesight is failing. It
is possible that information design is still strong and
healthy, but its most recent developments have yet to
be fully acknowledged and appreciated. I hope that
information designers of the millennial generation,
with their characteristic tolerance, will be able to
overlook statements like these and instead enjoy and
be energized by the wide landscape of expertise and
insight captured in this collection.
With respect to the state of the art, one need look
no further than the wonderful information visualiza
tions routinely used by the New York Times to see that
the recent improvements have been noteworthy and
commendable. One can look further, at websites like
the Pew Research Center, where, for example, we can
watch the polarization of U.S. politics, or the popula
tion bulge of the North American Baby Boom as it
grows older. There are also amazing online collections
like Flowingdata, and do-it-yourself sites like D3.
I end with a word about the design of the book.
The volume itself is a pleasure to handle, from
the coating of the cover to the full-color images
throughout. I also enjoyed how the white faux wrap
per emphasizes the phrase "as principled action" on
the spine.