• Issue 8/3 (December '96 - special issue: Education)
• Issue 8/2 (March '96)

Suggestions for InfoDesign Bookwatch are welcome, and can be send to the BookWatch Editors: Karel van der Waarde en Piet Westendorp.

Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities,Evidence and Narrative

by: Edward R. Tufte

Following 'The Visual Display of Quantitative Information' and 'Envisioning Information', this is Edward Tufte's third book on information design.

Quoting from Tufte's introduction to Visual Explanations:

"This book describes design strategies - the proper arrangement in space and time of images, words, and numbers - for presenting information about motion, process, mechanism, cause and effect.These strategies are found again and again in portrayals of explanations, quite independent of the particular substantive content or technology of display."

CONTENTS:

1. Images and Quantities
2. Visual and Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for Making
3. Decisions
4. Explaining Magic: Pictorial Instructions and Disinformation Design
5. The Smallest Effective Difference
6. Parallelism: Repetition and Change, Comparison and Surprise
7. Multiples in Space and Time
8. Visual Confections: Juxtapositions from the Oceans of the Streams of Story

157 pages; Price: $45 USA (postpaid), Graphics Press, Box 430, Cheshire, CT 06410, USA, Phone: +1 203 292 9187, Fax: +1 203 272 8600, ISBN: 0961392126

This book is also available through Amazon.com: http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0961392126

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Dynamics in Document Design (Karen Schriver)

Dynamics in Document Design describes what readers need from documents and how to take those needs into account. It offers practical insights about what document designers can do in order to become more sensitive to readers' needs and to develop greater expertise in integrating words and pictures.

CONTENTS:

1. What is document design?
2. Evolution of the field: contextual dynamics A timeline of document design: 1900 - 1995
3. How documents engage readers' thinking and feeling
4. The impact of poor design: thinking about ourselves as users of texts and technology
5. Seeing the text: the role of typography and space
6. The interplay of words and pictures
7. What document designers can learn from readers

Conclusion

Appendix A: Publications of interest to document designers

Appendix B: Common typographic symbols

Appendix C: Guidelines for designing online displays

592 pages, Price: $39.95 USA, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN: 0471-30636-3

This book is also available through Amazon.com: http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0471306363

A review (by Diane Haugen) of this book can be found at: http://www.rrv.net/wcdd/dd/books/schriver.html

Another review (by Michael Nadeau) of this book can be found in BYTE Magazine, April 1997, p.38. We cite a few sentences: "As should any good introduction, this book focuses on theory. Anyone looking for a step-by-step how-to guide will be disappointed. [...] Schriver [...] begins by making a compelling case for understanding design theory, followed by a history of the subject. [...] The book constantly puts you in the reader's shoes. You see how people react to poorly designed documents, how different elements entice readers, and how graphics aid in delivering the message. [...] A massive bibliography provides enough references to satisfy even the most curious design professional."

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Elements of Hypermedia Design: Techniques for Navigation and Visualization in Cyberspace (Peter Gloor)

Elements of Hypermedia Design is a book about the conceptual and technical aspects of hypermedia publishing. Its goal is to give guidelines on how to design useable hypermedia documents and structured content. Both aspects of the term 'hypermedia' are covered, namely hypertext (non-sequential text) and multimedia (rich graphical and interactive content).

This book illustrates how content, structure and presentation can be integrated to publish user-friendly documents on the web or in cd-rom formats. Coverage is given to:

• How to structure information for optimal navigation and access.
• How to present and visualize complex concepts by introducing algorithm animation.
• Authoring and editing of multimedia content.

CONTENTS:

Preface

I Structuring Information

Short Introduction to Information Retrieval, User Modeling, World Wide Web Introduction, Programming the Web, The 7 Design Concepts for Navigation in Cyberspace, Linking, Searching, Sequentialization, Hierarchy, Similarity, Mapping, Agents, Cybertools, Cybermap, Cybertrees, Conclusions

II Visualization

Introduction to Algorithm Animation, Animated Algorithms, User Interface Design For Algorithm Animation, The Art of Algorithm Animation, Educational Aspects, Animating Proofs, Algorithm Animation by Scripting, Conclusions

III Multimedia Editing

Introduction, Related Work, VideoScheme, Conclusion

IV Hypermedia Publishing

Introduction, DAGS 92 CD-ROM, DAGS 95 On the Web, The Development Process, Extensions and Improvements,

Conclusions

References

416 pages, hardcover, Price: $ 46.95 USA, 200 illustrations, Publisher: Springer Verlag,ISBN: 0-8176-3911-X

An online version of this book is at: http://www.birkhauser.com/hypermedia/hypermedia.html

The book is also available through Amazon.com: http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=081763911X

A review (by Michael Nadeau) of this book can be found in BYTE Magazine, April 1997, p.38. We cite a few sentences:

"Gloor focuses on theory, citing a number of important research projects. [...] The core of the book covers what Gloor calls the Seven Design Concepts for Navigation in Cyberspace: linking, searching, sequentialization, hierarchy, similarity, mapping, and agents. Interactive media veterans might find this list obvious, but Gloor adds valuable perspective to these concepts with his own commentary and by citing findings of other researchers."

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A Word in Your Eye: Opinions, Observations and Conjectures on Design, From 1960 To The Present (Ken Garland)

From the introduction:

"This selection is made up of contributions to anthologies and periodicals, excerpts from books, papers given at conferences, [and] lectures ..."

CONTENTS:

49 articles in chronological order. Some of the recurring topics are:

- relation between content and form

- public lettering (formal and graffiti)

- relation between text and image

- the role of graphic designers

- the relevance of graphic design

- corporate identities

- the London Underground map.

160 pages, paperback, 280 x 210 mm, Price: British Pounds 14.95 (including postage), Publisher: Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, The University of Reading, ISBN: 0-7049-1121-3

This book is available from:

Department of Typography & Graphic Communication

The University of Reading

2 Earley Gate

Whiteknights

PO Box 239

Reading RG6 2AU

England

Phone: + 44 118 931 8081

Fax: + 44 118 935 1680

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Information Design Journal - Issue 8/3 (December '96) (Special issue: Education)

Information design journal 8/3 is a special issue about education, guest-edited by Sue Walker <swalker@textmatters.com>.

The following articles appear in its 96 pages:

- Peter Burnhill: Outside the whale

- Robin Kinross: The nuts of 'em: Anthony Froshaug as a teacher

- David Sless: Early travels through information design

- Richard K. Lowe: Pictorial information design for schools

- Michael Twyman: Schoolbooks designed to give children experience in reading handwriting

- Lydia Plowman: Designing interactive media for schools: a review based on contextual information

- Sharon Poggenpohl and others: The Alphabet Highway: literacy in a digital context

Information design journal is an international journal of research about user-centred communication design. Its motto is: 'building a knowledge-base for the practice of information design'. Since 1979 IDJ has been trying to create links between professionals - designers, writers, editors - and researchers and educators. It has done this through the Journal, and also by organizing conferences.

IDJ's editor is Paul Stiff <P.Stiff@reading.ac.uk>. Contact him if you have proposals about publishing in IDJ.

About subscriptions:

IDJ costs 20 pounds sterling (40 US dollars) for a volume of 3 issues, all on paper. For institutions (libraries, design offices, etc.), it costs 44 pounds sterling (90 US dollars). To pay by credit card, send the following information to our subscriptions address below:

- type of card

- card number

- cardholder name & address

- card expiry date

- IDJ delivery address (if different from cardholder address)

- and please sign & date your request (it'll have to be on paper because the people who handle subscriptions don't yet have an e-mail address).

We can fax or post a subscription form to you if you wish, but you don't have to use one. You can simply send postal mail or a fax to the address below, saying that you want to subscribe to IDJ:

Marion Berry

IDJ subscriptions

PO box 2230

Reading

RG5 4FH

England

Fax: + 44 118 962 8357

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Information Design Journal - Issue 8/2 (March '96)

Information design journal 8/2 (96 pages) has the following articles:

- Alison Black & Jacob Buur: Making solid user interfaces work

- Linda Reynolds: The functional use of colour on visual display units

- Paul Stiff: The end of the line: a survey of unjustified typography

- Malcolm Clark: Structural defects: form and content in electronic publishing

- Jon Oberlander: Grice for graphics: pragmatic implicature in network diagrams

- Paul Nini: What graphic designers don't do

- Yateendra Joshi: Graphic representation of railway timetables

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