A Unified Theory of Information Design

Visuals, Text and Ethics

Nicole Amare, Alan Manning

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780895037794
• eBook ISBN: 9781351868938
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Communicative visuals, including written text, have a diverse range of forms and purposes. In this volume, the authors show that it is possible to both describe and explain the major properties of diverse visual-communication forms and purposes within a common theoretical framework of information design and ethics. For those unaccustomed to thinking of written text as a visual form belonging to the same general class as other visual forms (colour, texture, shape, imagery, etc.), consider how a text's readability suffers if we remove all white space and punctuation, which can be identified as visual signals of the same subtype as grid lines and bullet points, dividing and calling attention to adjacent information. The authors identify deep connections between foundational visual design elements and the grammar of language itself.

No physicist or chemist today questions the value of a single theory that describes and explains a wide variety of phenomena, but oddly enough, the authors have frequently been asked why they are interested in advancing a unified theory of visual communication. The simplest answer is: to treat visual communication as a science, and seeking unified theories is just what science does. In more practical terms, a unified approach to visual communication allows us to teach visual design students relatively few things that will enable them to do relatively many things.

Index

1. Action triggers, 115–117, 119, 124
2. Action triggers, shorthand code, 126t
   1. elevated, 145–146, 148
   2. interpretation type, 126–128
   3. misuse, overuse, 129
   4. require contrast, 131
   5. shorthand code, 126t
   6. web page links, 129
3. Advertisements, cultural context, associative connections, 40f
4. Alley, M., 64
5. Alternative unification models, 25
6. Animation, indicative (watching) vs. ritual-sequence (learning), 144f
7. Architecture example images, 108f
8. Aristotelian categories, 195
9. Arola, K., 195

1. Ball, C., 195
2. Borders, backgrounds, images, 8
3. Bullet marks, 9
4. Bulleted lists, 8–10
5. Bullets and links, unorganized, 116f

1. Center for Disease Control (visual), 5–6
2. Chartjunk examples, 100f
3. Coded-system relationships, 169, 175–176, 177f
4. Color, feeling, generic associations, 54t
5. Communication development, 77, 103, 128
6. Community of inquiry, 16
7. Composed form-feeling associations, 50f
8. Compromised visuals, illustrative examples, 4–7
9. Containment, 24
10. The Craft of Scientific Presentations (Alley), 64

1. Data, without image distraction, 73f
2. Data/ink ratio rule, 196f
3. Decorated graphic, 29f
4. Decorated persuasive graphic, 34f
5. Decorative, indicative, informative, visual problems, revisions, 5f
6. Decorative design parameters, Peircean, 35–36
   1. advertisements, cultural context, 40f
   2. basic form, 37
   3. clashing vs. unified decoratives, 38–39f
   4. first level, 41
   5. informative reconstruction, 42f
   6. interpretation type, 37
   7. key design parameters, 43t
   8. reference process, 37
   9. 10-class system of visual types, 43f
7. Decorative effects in images, 80
   1. form/feeling associations, 81t
   2. variety, contras...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter1 Decoratives
• Chapter2 Images
• Chapter3 Diagrams
• Chapter4 Indicatives
• Chapter5 Informative Indices
• Chapter6 Words, Sentences, and Text
• Chapter7 Toward a Universal Terminology and Grammar of Visual Types
• References
• Index