Rating: 
Summary: Now I know why I'm an information designer.
Review: Aside from a wonderful dustjacket, this book unfortunately lacks real design and visual style. But don't let that put you off. This book travels a lot of time and space, most of it well -- from the history of Egyptian scribes to the future of online virtual worlds!I'd have preferred two or three volumes to one try-to-be-everything text. Also, I sense a need for a magazine or online journal, to bring things up to immediate date. But overall, I was plenty impressed and satisfied with this book. Clement Mok, a personal fav rave, on the dustjacket calls ID the "design of understanding." This book does a good job of it.
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Summary: The nay-sayers below just don't get it.
Review: Don't read this book with the wrong expectations. This isn't a book about how to do information design. This is a book about being an information designer: theories, ethics, political and cultural issues, etc. I agree, the visual design is less than eloquent: standard MIT Press "academic." But the writing is exciting, so long as you're not looking for a how-to book. In fact, it's one of the lessons of this book that, so far as information design goes, our understanding of ID is still evolving and an how-to ID book would be premature.
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Summary: Illustrates Why Info Design Is More Than Just Flowcharts
Review: I am a professional Information Architect; However, I picked up the book without any preconcieved notions or superficial expectations. I found especially illuminating (and actually empathisized with) the comparisons between IAs conceptualizing Information Design and Traditional Architects conceptualizing "wayfinding" through building structures. For those of you who are looking for a Home Deopt style "How-To" manual on creating intuitive interface design for software applications; you simply have to surf the web for 1001 lessons on HOW NOT TO do it. Seriously, the only effective Information Design training program is years of experience in software development. A "blueprint" or plan is key to useful execution, but there is a lot more to good Information Design than a pile of flowcharts. The best an author can do is to share some of his/her insight on ergonomic design with the rest of us. While many of the reviewers found this book's exposition of visionary and philosophical approaches to design impractical; I found it to be both informative and refreshing. Information design is not about how rigidly organized the branching structure is; instead, it's about how the user "moves through" an application (hopefully with pleasure and ease of use). This calls for a combination of clever engineering and artistic design, and cannot be accomplished simply by "keeping all your ducks in a row" The most significant aspect of good Info Design, in the end, is clear, intuitive, useable interface.
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Summary: No use for Technical Communicators
Review: I bought this book because it was on the reading list for Sheffield Hallam University's MA in Technical Communications. If I ever take the course I'm going to ask them why they bothered to put this book on the list, because it has very little to do with what is commonly accepted as 'Technical Communication'.
This book is basically a collection of essays by people who are trying to answer the question "What is information design?". Most of the articles are concerned with such things as signage and navigation in public places. This is entirely WORTHLESS for the average Technical Communicator/Writer. I was hoping to learn something about structuring written communications, or about the presentation of technical information. Instead I simply learnt not to buy a book just because it is on a University reading list. Extremely disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: A Struggle To Swallow
Review: I'd have to say I was very optimistic when I saw a book entirely about information design. It was too good to be true. A lot of the theory in this book - especially the part about sense making - beats around the bush without committing to a single belief. Pick up the book in a bookstore and skim through chapter 3. You'll get the point.
Rating: 
Summary: A Preliminary Invitation to the reader...
Review: INFORMATION DESIGN is the first comprehensive anthology on this topic to appear in nearly a decade. Contributions from 16 leading practitioners and scholars define the field, explore its theoretical and practical foundations, and discover how best to systematize and teach information design. The foreward by Richard Saul Wurman sets a tone of thoughtful exploration and debate. INFORMATION DESIGN is both a how-to and a deeper investigation of the meaning and importance of information design. Table of Contents: INFORMATION DESIGN (MIT Press, 1999), Edited by Robert Jacobson Foreword, Richard Saul Wurman Information architect Wurman begins the volume with a thoughtful essay on information design as a means to crafting connections among human beings. These connections facilitate shared understanding and creative learning. We are on the verge of being able to fully exploit the techniques as technology evolves to match. Preface, Robert Jacobson I. Introduction: Why Information Design Matters, Robert Jacobson Dr. Jacobson, the editor, discusses the structure of the volume. To the contributors, each of whom is an expert scholar or practitioner within his or her domain, the editor posed three questions: Is there such a practice as "information design"? If so, can we construct an underlying theory? And can we then communicate this theory as teachings to students and apprentices? The answers were more complex than expected and revealed a constant concern for the spirit and experience...*of the information designer!* 2. Information Design: The Emergence of a New Profession, Robert E. Horn Bob Horn, inventor of information-mapping, describes the origins of information design, beginning with ancient scribes, and its philosophical elaboration in more recent times. Horn believes information design is a new profession within the overall design enterprise which is in the process of becoming formalized and more recognizable as unique. 3. Chaos, Order, and Sense-Making: A Proposed Theory for Information Design, Brenda Dervin Dr. Dervin discusses existing power relationships in societies and the manipulation of information availability to maintain inequalities. She proposes the use of Sense-making, a formal method for describing information needs and resources, as a way of addressing these inequities. 4. Human-Centered Design, Mike Cooley Professor Cooley describes the meaning of human-centric design as both a healthier method of design and also a means of education. He emphasizes the value of tacit knowledge as a method for communicating knowledge and then summarizes the European Community's initiatives in this domain. 5. Sign-Posting Information Design, Romedi Passini Professor Passini describes and then demonstrates by application the use of wayfinding, an architectural practice, to help users navigate dense or complex information -- the type with which most of us have to deal everyday. He explores the commonalities among physical and textual, imagery, and other virtual environments. II. The Practice of Information Design 6. The Uniqueness of Individual Perception, Roger Whitehouse Whitehouse explains the methods of designing for perception, including the perceptions of those who may be sensory-deprived in one mode or another. The Lighthouse Project is one endeavor intended to further the principles of design for the sensory-deprived. 7. Information Design in Informal Settings: Museums and Other Public Spaces, C. G. Screven Professor Screven delivers a comprehensive explication of design for exhibitions and other user-managed informational experiences. Developing a theory for dealing with the sheer variety of these experiences is simplified through the application of scientific measurements and other types of analysis described by Screven. 8. Graphic Tools for Thinking, Planning, and Problem Solving, Yvonne M. Hansen Various graphic methods are employed to communicate meaning. The arbitrariness of these languages is a limitation to the meaning that is received and understood by readers. Hansen describes a formal graphical language and demonstrates its use as a tool for capturing the experience of a presentation and its reception and discussion. 9. Visual Design in Three Dimensions, Hal Thwaites Professor Thwaites creates a typology and framework for the categorization and study of three-dimensional images and environments. Many of the lessons of conventional 2D media, like film, are inapplicable to 3D visual design and production. Thwaites proposes a theory and suggests new rules. 10 Collaborative Information Design: Seattle's Modern Odyssey, Judy Anderson Professor Anderson, an award-winning graphics and book designer, describes a large-scale, long-term effort to modify the experience of being a customer of and rider on the Seattle Metro bus system. The key to the success of this massive and complex design program is its collaborative structure, by which design elements -- modes of expression, like on-board entertainment -- are integrated. III. Designing for the Technologies of Information 11. Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design, Nathan Shedroff Shedroff, an early pioneer in information design, proposes a complete theory based on his prior work and experience. This Unified Field Theory is based on a "physics" of perception and meaning which information designers can use to improve their effectiveness. 12. Interactivity and Meaning, Sheryl Macy, Elizabeth Andersen, and John Krygier Environmental designers Macy, Andersen, and Krygier revise the familiar model of communication proposed by Claude Shannon -- signal, signal carrier, sender, receiver, noise, and so forth -- to make it compatible with today's information design challenges. Shannon's model is surprisingly contemporary, though not sufficiently interactive. 13. The Role of Ambiguity in Multimedia Experience, Jim Gasperini Multimedia and virtual-environment designer Gasperini, currently working on a complete revision of SimCity, here tells why narratives and scripting are at odds with ambiguity, which he feels is essential to the involving interactive experience. Gasperini is reacting in part to popular theories of "computers as theater," which stipulate preconception of audience experience, a strategy Gasperini finds futile. 14. Sculpting in Zeroes and Ones, Steve Holtzman Dr. Holtzman, a virtual worlds scholar, composer, and computer scientist, discusses noteworthy aspects of digital art crafted using computers as tools, palettes, and canvases. Holtzman identifies specific works that illustrate digital art's current state and its potential. 15. Personal Reflections on the Development of Cyberspace, Simon Birrell Birrell, a designer of online virtual environments, provides a manifesto for those who will create the Internet of the future, based on shared virtual worlds. Birrell urges attention to a number of factors that affect the quality and value of online virtual environments, including the motivations, dedication, and skill of their authors. Epilogue 16. Rationalizing Information Representation, Jef Raskin Raskin, who helped to design the original Mac and has consistently pushed the limits of computer interface design, offers a gentle, wry, and critical review of "information design" as a concept. His skepticism is not absolute. Raskin offers his take on what it would take to engender a genuine information design as he envisions it. Contributors Index
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Summary: Preliminary Invitation to the Reader
Review: INFORMATION DESIGN is the first comprehensive anthology on this topic to appear in over a decade. Contributors from 16 leading practitioners and scholars help to define the field, explore its theoretical and practical foundations, and discover how best to systematize and teach information design. The foreward by Richard Saul Wurman sets a tone of thoughtful exploration and debate. INFORMATION DESIGN is less a how-to and more a deeper investigation of the soul of the information designer: the motivations and personal insights of experts who have been practicing information design long before it became popularized by the Internet and World Wide Web.
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Summary: Designing information for electronic delivery.
Review: Information design is the newest of the design disciplines. As a sign of our times, when the crafting of messages and meaning is so central to our lives, information design is not only important - it is essential. Contemporary information designers seek to edify more than to persuade, to exchange more than to foist upon. With ever more powerful technologies of communication, we have learned that the issuer of designed information is as likely as the intended recipient to be changed by it, for better or worse. The contributors to this book are both cautionary and hopeful as they offer visions of how information design can be practiced diligently and ethically, for the benefit of information consumers as well as producers. They present various methods that seem to work, such as sense-making and way-finding. They make recommendations and serve as guides to a still young but extraordinarily pervasive- and persuasive-field. Until recently, Robert Jacobson was a Senior Consultant at SRI International. Contributors: Elizabeth Andersen, Judy Anderson, Simon Birrell, Mike Cookey, Brenda Dervin, Jim Gasperini, Yvonne M. Hansen, Steve Holtzman, Robert E. Horn, Robert Jacobson, John Krygier, Sheryl Macy, Romedi Passini, Jef Raskin, Chandler Screven, Nathan Shedroff, Hal Thwaites, Roger Whitehouse.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't read it to learn something
Review: It is a nice book to find some odd perspectives on information design. There are even three chapters I liked. About sense-making, about information theory and the epilogue. The epilogue is the best, unfortunately. With the exception of some paragraphs, there isn't much practicle substance. Some of the contributors are really off the topic.
Rating:
Summary: Worthless, don't bother with this one
Review: It's a very bad sign when a book on information design is completely lacking in good design itself. With the exception of one chapter (Whitehouse, "The Uniqueness of Individual Perception"), this book is of no significance. The articles are far too academic and there is very little here that relates to the practice of information design. Skip it.
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