Theory and practice

In the Information Design Summer School we used flash cards that summarise key theories that underpin information design.¹ We used them when we critiqued examples of good and bad design, to explain why they work or don’t work. This website actually started off as the summer school theory cards, and kept going.

We can find help from academic disciplines for quite a few problems that confront the user of information:²

• I don’t understand the content: Cognitive psychology
• I don’t understand the sentences: Psycholinguistics, text linguistics
• I don’t understand the words: Lexicography, semantics, psycholinguistics
• I can’t see how to use it: Applied psychology, ergonomics, user experience design

• I don’t like the way this looks: Graphic design theories, aesthetics, gestalt psychology
• I’m struggling to see what’s going on: Psychology of perception
• I can’t find my way around this: User experience design, environmental psychology
• I don’t see what it has to do with me: Marketing/segmentation, relevance theory
• I don’t think it’s talking to me: Sociolinguistics, linguistic philosophy
• I don’t see how it relates to other information I’ve got: Marketing/customer journey, text linguistics
• I can’t make sense of this diagram: Graphic design theories, semiotics
• It doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen before: Design history, genre theory

1. Jenny Waller (2011) Professionalising functional communications: What practitioners need to know, Technical paper 12, The Simplification Centre

2. Robert Waller (2011) Information design: how the disciplines work together. Technical paper 14, The Simplification Centre.