Seeing the Pattern Gives Us Closure

In any story we use a process called closure. Closure means recognizing the pattern of information being shown or described to us in bits and pieces, and completing the pattern in our minds.
-- www.storycenter.org/memvoice/pages/cookbook.html

When all is said and done in the production of information graphics, there must be closure or, as they so aptly put it at The Story Center, the recognition of the pattern of information being shown. The graphic must come together in all its parts into a summative picture in the viewer’s mind and a summative point about the story it is telling. Without closure, the graphic leaves ambiguity and confusion in its wake.

However, the challenge to create closure for the viewers begins much closer to the start of the project than the end. What is the closure or conclusion, pattern or moral that you want viewers to take away? What is the point of the graphic? What is the story you are trying to tell? Often it is easy to get wrapped up in depicting the various parts of the idea without having a clear, concise sense of what the idea really is. The end result is an attractive, yet muddled mess that lacks oomph or usefulness – the sine qua non of information graphic design.

The Graphics Are The Information

“In designing infographics, applying a graphic style to the information is not nearly as important as giving a graphic form to the actual content.”

Information design is not about making things pretty or attractive or dressing up information that is clear enough in text form. Information design is about transmitting information that cannot be expressed as clearly through text – information about relationships, physical proximity, processes, etc. The classic example is John Snow’s map of a cholera epidemic in London in 1854. It was only by mapping out the incidences of cholera relative to the wells being used that one could see the connection and make the intuitive jump that the well water transmitted cholera.

This point is critical to make so that potential clients for information designers do not think they are simply buying a gussied up version of what they already know. They must understand that what they are buying is information they do not already know. Creating graphic depictions of the information or the content generates new insights and ideas by allowing clients to understand issues visually and spatially.

This is not about making fancy PowerPoint’s with meaningless graphics and creative fonts that do little more than confuse the issue. It is about using visual language to communicate ideas. Fundamentally, it is about the difference between a map and a set of directions. The directions will get you where you want to go but the map gives you options, lets you see context, provides details succinctly, and gives you a sense of the future.

Your Values Are Your Mission

The brand value statement or brand value proposition is marketing-speak for a mission statement. Describing a mission statement in this way highlights the value of the statement to consumers – it points out that your mission statement is not just an articulation of your values; it is a central part of the value story you are selling. You are putting forth a statement of values that underlie your organization and presumably guide your actions and are embedded within your services or products. Your mission statement is your value statement. Your brand is a visual prompt for people to remember your values, and recognize their feelings about your organization.

The Space is the Story

“Constructing visual representations of information is not mere translation of what can be read to what can be seen. It entails filtering the information, establishing relationships, discerning patterns, and representing them [in a meaningful way].”

Visual representations of information bring relationships, connections, divisions, and patterns to the fore. Instead of simply describing the information, visual representations give us a physical sense of proximity, size, similarity, chronology, and power – they enable us to see where things stand and how they are laid out in a certain space.

Therefore, the challenge to the information designer is to choose the appropriate physical space in which to display the information relationships. Is it a subway system, a floor plan, a hierarchical chart, or a world map? Is the space a representation of time passing or a snapshot of today?

Once one has chosen the space, one must carefully choose the dimensions of the information that will be portrayed. It will be necessary to evaluate any aesthetic instincts for their information value – does varying the color communicate something about the information or is it merely for decoration?

Displaying dimensions

The British Telegraph produced a series of world maps depicting various comparisons between the world's countries (e.g., wealth, housing costs, war deaths). While these maps are well done along the lines of previous United Nations comparison maps, they raise questions for me about the balance between attractiveness and clarity: when should artistic issues take a back seat to clarity concerns?


This map depicts the number of international immigrants living in each country as a percentage of their population. One can easily see the size differences between, say, the United States and Spain. However,given the warping effect used by the creators of this map, one wonders if Spain is bigger than it looks on the map but it just got folded under when the map was warped. The same goes for places that have been stretched such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Second, it is not clear what the different colors represent, if anything. It appears that they have been used to demarcate different regions of the world but they ambiguiously imply relations beyond that -- why are North America and Europe similarly dark colored? Why is most of Asia light colored? Why are South America and Africa similarly green-blue? And what is the meaning of the shadings of each color?


The casual viewer of the map may not be put off by these color issues, but the use of color shading without having a particular reason or without trying to show a particular dimension is confusing and creates ambiguity. The map above, depicting HIV rates around the world, raises similar questions. Ultimately, one should be careful when making artistic choices to make sure they don't muddy the information message.

The Dimensions of Diagrams

The key to good diagrams is understanding the dimensions that one is displaying…and stripping out the ones that are simply decoration. What characteristics of “good schools” does one want to communicate? Which aspects of the Iraq war is one focusing one? Making choices about the specific aspects or dimensions of the problem makes one’s diagram stronger, clearer, and more compelling.

Why Ethnography? We're designers, not researchers.

• Ethnography is immersive
• Ethnography allows us to see fundamental patterns and connections
• Ethnography allows us to go beyond the superficial
• Ethnography identifies the meaning that people make of their work

The Need for Research in the Design Process

“If the problem is stated vaguely, the solution produced will be generic.”
-- great solutions (insightful, innovative) come from in-depth, immersive research
-- clarity (of the problem) leads to creativity (in the solution)

What is an information designer? and other issues...

1. An information designer is a knowledge specialist, a social scientist, and a creative visualizer. Being an information designer is not about the artifacts of the trade (brochures, web pages, diagrams, signage, maps, manuals, catalogs), but about the process behind their production – namely, how one thinks about understanding and communicating knowledge.

2. A knowledge specialist considers both the facts and the relationships between the facts, where the facts come from and the context behind the facts, the stories we make with the facts and the essential ideas behind the facts.

3. The value of a designer does not rest in the product he creates. It rests in his ability to understand the needs of the client and create solutions to that problem. While the end result may be a brochure or web page, the goal is connecting with a certain audience in a certain way with a certain outcome in mind. The designer needs to spend as much time understanding this goal as he does creating the product.

4. The trend in communications is away from delivering the facts and toward co-constructing understanding. People expect to be able to ask questions of information, examine ideas, and give input on decisions. Therefore, changing the direction of a company cannot happen using a top-down approach. It must provide opportunities for interaction around the new ideas, if only to get people to engage in management’s thinking.

Information Design is...

• the efficient graphic design/display of complex sets of information

• emphasis on EFFICIENT and COMPLEX ⇒ making it easier for people to quickly absorb a complex collection of information, but also presenting it to them in a way that will STICK

• info design –documenting knowledge, communicating knowledge

• making the interrelations of facts or ideas comprehensible

• reducing ambiguity and uncertainty in HOW THINGS WORK

• taking things apart ⇒ reassemble them coherently, insightfully, with precision and detail

• the research process of i.d. is not simply information gathering; it is qualitative and ethnographic inquiry, searching for connections between information and drawing out essential insights from those engaged with the facts or data

The Process of Change

When the leadership decides to change directions, it is not always easy to get everyone to come along. Inertia, skepticism, and fear conspire to block any changes to strategies, processes, or goals. Overcoming these obstacles takes real work that must not be overlooked – the change process must be a key part of any new organizational direction.

The AIGA suggests that your workers will need to be inspired, convinced, cajoled, and educated to get them on board with the changes. This is true, but they left out a key component – getting your staff to identify with the changes.

The main problem with organizational change is that it shakes up the way people think about their work, their role, their purpose, and, fundamentally, their identity in the company. People resist change because they are afraid of losing their identity in the process. To make change happen successfully, you need to give them something to hang their hat on. You need to help them shift their identify from the old way to the new direction. You need them to see where they fit in, explore their new role, see their relationship to others, and appreciate their value. You need to engage them in a discussion of the changes and invest them in making the changes succeed. You need them to see how these changes will enhance their value and strengthen their identity within the company.

So change in an organization is not just about persuading your employees to come along; it is about showing them how to cross the river to a new, better identity.

I agree with AIGA that designers play a key role in making this happen. Changes to structures, processes, or strategies require changing the way one thinks. Since people understand the world through metaphorical and visual schemas, changing the way they think means changing the way they see or visualize the work. Designers provide the link between new ideas and visualizing new schemas by taking concepts and language and presenting the core notions, relationships, and processes in pictures that people can connect with. When they connect with these pictures, they integrate them in their thinking about the work. It is then that they can best implement new strategies, processes, or directions for the company.

Boundaries of design

There are three basic steps to any problem, even when your challenge is ultimately creative and not simply functional. While much of the focus of design is put on the creative step, much of the value of any design rests in how well one defines the problem or challenge in the beginning. The clearer that one understands the scope and details of the situation, the sharper one's design solution will be.

While design is an open-ended process, it needs to start with boundaries. Design is trying to communicate the clearest message, convey the most feeling, and create the best experience within the boundaries of the project. Without boundaries, any design project loses its foothold and, more importantly, its contextual meaning. Design works in a context and one must know the context in which one is designing.

Why Do I Design?

AIGA put out a booklet asking "why do you design?" Their answer is "Because you like to solve problems." This is inherently true, though I would change it to "solve puzzles." When I think about design challenges, the task is always about finding ways to bring clarity to multi-leveled, complex, situations or ideas. It is about finding clarity when two or more disparate notions come together. It is about finding the design solution that accomodates all the different parts of the ideas you are working with and creates a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.

Design is not about merely shuffling elements into attractive packages or displays (although it can be); design is about incrementally creating something new, creating a new way of thinking about elements in relation to each other, creating a new way of understanding a familiar concept or activity. Design is a move forward into the unknown, using familiar structures to invite the viewer in and then twisting the structures in a new way. It is about finding unique ways to join puzzle pieces.

I design because I like to solve puzzles... and create new ones.