Tag: Reading response
Organization as applied to information design is the structuring of content in such a way that it is effectively understood by the audience. (‘Effectively’ here means: quickly, intuitively, accurately and orderly.) Organization can include visual spacing into rows, columns or other spaces; also it includes layering, grouping and aligning text which is an example of proximity.
Proximity in terms of graphic organization pertains to the distance between two pieces of information which provides information or misinformation about links between those pieces of information. Typically parallel information tells us that the data are in the same category in other words close adjacency indicates those data go together. Putting unlinked data relatively close together can mislead the audience to believe that items are linked when they are not.
Hierarchy is a prioritized ordering of data ensures that the most important information is most easily conveyed to the audience. When less important data takes precedence the audience is likely to miss out on seeing what counts.
Link to form that violates good practicehttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100836620827078&set=a.81630865...
What went wrong in this example was hierarchy. The skateboarding figure has so much detail that the audience reads into the sign too much. A more generic, stick person type skateboarder would show the message clearly. But adding such detail as an uncool helmet and knee pads, riding a board that looks like some weird hybrid of an old-school board and a new one, and using unevenly sized wheels while having a I’m-falling-of-a-building posture give a different message. It says "No Awkward skateboarding allowed"
But as long as you don't look like this noob, skateboarding is permitted.”
The same can be said of the equestrian pictograms from the Olympics on page 130 of Katz’ book Designing Information. Some are so ambiguous that they don’t show any more information than “man on horse”. Others put the horse in a posture particular to ONE equestrian sport. For example the Atlanta 1996 horse looks to be specifically Dressage while the Sydney 2000 horse is actively jumping indicating hunter-jumper competition.
Getting too specific can alter generic messages into specific messages which can be confusing if you are looking for the action that was meant to be included but visually excluded from the pictogram.