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The World Wide Web is a collection (a library) of documents. Putting it
another way, it a huge collection of writing. For this reason, when we look at
designing Web pages, we should be thinking about information design, not graphic
design. Technically, the Web is a literate medium, not a visual medium. Although
it is over-simplistic, you could say that graphic design builds neon lights to
attract attention, while information design builds traffic lights to organise
and manage communication.
People who 'surf' the World Wide Web are generally described as
"users". It is probably better to refer to them as
"readers". Readers are more interested in how a page
reads than how a page looks.
So what is information design? When you are creating a Web site or an
intranet document, you make lots of decisions. Some relate to words, such as
what phrase to use, or how to construct a sentence. Other decisions relate to
the use of hypertext to aid navigation, such as what words to link to what
related content, or how which pages should be logically linked in a hierarchy.
These decisions are part of the information design process. The structure,
content, layout, hierarchy, writing style, classification, navigation devices,
words and links all make up information design.
Some examples of sites that focus on information design rather than graphic
design include:
- Google,
- Yahoo,
- Microsoft, and
- Amazon
You've heard of these sites? You should have, because these are amongst the
most used (or should we say, most read) sites on the World Wide Web. If
you use Google as a search engine, you will probably agree that its strongest
feature is its speed. One of the reasons it is fast is because it is uncluttered
and bandwidth efficient.
Designing information is one of the most important skills in the Information
Age. As we are presented with more and more content every day, it is critical
that we have the benefit of good information design to help us find and use
information speedily and efficiently.
Further reading: Managing Information
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