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Can graphic design ever be too good? Can it tip over into insincerity?
Can graphic design ever be too good? Can it tip over into insincerity?
Will Stahl-Timmins is the data graphics designer for the BMJ, a leading medical journal. In a talk1 he mentioned the issue of trust, almost as an aside. In his experience, well-finished graphics in a medical context can sometimes be mistaken for pharma marketing.
Here in the UK we don’t have pharmaceutical advertising to the public, but we have plenty of toothpaste ads in which improbably good-looking dentists in very cool labs tell us how we can get whiter teeth. It’s the same thing.
Graphic design dresses information in a costume that communicates personality. This affects how sincere we think it is, or how expert, how professional. Credibility is critical for health information right now.
1. Will Stahl-Timmins ‘A picture of health: Visualising medical information for doctors’, International Institute for Information Design, 22 October 2022.