{"id":3599,"date":"2017-08-20T22:40:04","date_gmt":"2017-08-20T22:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.uncc.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=3599"},"modified":"2017-08-21T22:24:52","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T22:24:52","slug":"informationdesignprinciples","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/engl4182-5182fall2017\/engl4182-5182august21\/informationdesignprinciples\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhetorical Principles of Information Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of this class is inspired by Kimball and Hawkins now out-of-print Document Design<\/em> book. Unless otherwise noted, the page citations are from textbook<\/p>\n

\n

<\/del>Introducing Information Design<\/h1>\n

Document design is part of a larger field called Information Design (ID)<\/a><\/strong>. Saul Carliner’s definition of ID works on three levels:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Physical–providing meaningful visual design
    \n“From the users\u2019 perspective, good physical design lets them find information of interest easily” (564)<\/li>\n
  2. Cognitive–understand information through design choices
    \n“Cognitive design primarily focuses on the design process: adequately defining the users\u2019 performance goals and preparing a solution that addresses them” (566)<\/li>\n
  3. Affective–motivate users to act
    \n“Before users can perform the tasks describe[d] in communication products, they need to feel compelled to read about them….After attracting readers\u2019 attention, technical communicators must motivate readers to use information in the communication product” (568).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Additionally, Kimball & Hawkins claim “Document designers work to understand the problems and situations of information users and information providers and then craft documents that help solve those problems within those situations” (p. 3). Although it might seem outdated to discuss “documents” as opposed to sites of content, “documents are best understood as a site where one person can\u00a0mark information for the use of another” (p. 5). Basically, effective design stems from understanding audiences<\/strong> and purposes<\/strong> for a potential document. You might have had discussions about audience and purpose in other classes, and you should have because they are the key elements to consider when communicating: The best communication in the world will fail if the author doesn’t understand his or her audience and doesn’t have a clear sense of the purpose of the communication.<\/p>\n

    Below are the groups that make up the document design relationship:<\/p>\n