Design and Information The term design refers to a deliberate and systematicprocess of analysis and synthesis that 1) begins with the identifying of a problem, 2) comprises the intellectual creative effort of an originator, and 3) concludes with a concrete plan or blueprint for a solution. This may be drawings, plans, schemes and specifications. Design areas represent many parts of human activities. Examples are apparel design, archit ectural desig n, ceramics design, communic ation design , costume desig n, craft design, document design, editorial design, engineering design, environmental design, exhibition design, fashion design, fine arts design, furniture design, glass design, graphic design, image design, ind ust ria l des ign , inf ormatio n des ign , ins tructi on des ign , ins tructi ona l message des ign , interaction design, interface design, interior design, it design, landscape design, light design, manufacturing design, mechanical design, message design, molecular design, ornamental design, pacage design, pattern design, persuasion design, poster design, product design, se rvice design, text design, textile design, type design and urban design. Design science is a large field of academic research, education and training. There are common problem areas regardless of what we design. !n a common terminology the top level may be named "#amilies.$ %ext level may be called $&enera.$ The third level is "'pecies$ (ordisciplines). Each subect matter consists of a number of courses. !n five design families the cla ssif ica tion dep end s on the pur pos e wit h the des ign . *e can des ign arte fact s, dif fer ent mes sages, per for man ces, systems and pro cesses, and our own env ironme nts . These des ign families are call ed artefact des ign , mes sage des ign , per for man ce des ign , sys tems des ign orsystems envelopment, and environment design. +ll are hold together with design philosophy, the sixth design family . Design science (left) includes six design families (right): artefact design (1), message design (2), performance design (3), systems design (4),environ ment design (5), and design philo sophy ()! 1
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' design processes starts "ith a commission ()! #he goal is to produce a final design (D), to %e
used as a master for production of a num%er of representations (/) or artefacts!
Message Design Principles
+ number of authors have offered design principles, a ind of "fundamental truths$ in
different areas of design, such as data graphics1 general design2, message design3,instructional design4, instructional message design5, information design . 'ome of these
=et most graphical wor today, particularly in news publications, is under the direction
of a single expertise7the artistic. +llowing artist7illustrators to control the design and content of
statistical graphics is almost lie allowing typographers to control the content, style, and editing
of prose. 'ubstantive and :uantitative expertise must also participate in the design of data
graphics, at least if statistical integrity and graphical sophistication are to be achieved.
The design process includes cognitive as well as practical aspects and activities.
8owland1 has studied the process of design across a number of professions. According to himmain principles of a general process of design include the following characteristics:
1. esigning re:uires a balance of reason and intuition, an impetus to act, and an ability
to reflect on actions taen.
2. The design process is a learning process.
3. esigning is a goal9directed process in which the goal is to conceive and reali6e some
new thing.
. The design process is dependent on the designer and on what he or she designs.
. The new thing that results from designing has practical utility.
/. esign re:uires social interaction.
>. esigning involves problem solving, but not all problem solving is designing.
?. !n designing, problem understanding and problem solving may be simultaneous or
se:uential processes.
0. esigning involves technical sills and creativity and rational and intuitive thought
processes.
Studies of processes of message design resulted in the following list with twelve design
principles to be used in the production of information and instruction:
1. !ntroduce novel or unexpected events at the start of instruction.
11. @rovide immediate feedbac or nowledge of results.
12. 8eview and repeat.
Csing a large number of visual examples -alamed offers designers six principles for
creating graphics and visual language that people may understand. These principles are
1. ;rgani6e for perception. ("5y understanding how viewers initially analy6e an image,designers can structure and organi6e graphic so it complements human perception.$)
2. irect the eyes. ("+ designer or illustrator can assist this process by purposefully
guiding the viewerDs eyes through the structure of a graphic.$1)
3. 8educe realism. ($There are times when the ideal expression of a message can be
achieved through visual shorthand. +n effective way to do this is to reduce the
realistic :ualities embedded in a graphic.$)
. -ae the abstract concrete. ("Aisual thining is an integral aspect of cognition, an d
the visuali6ing of abstract concepts helps us understand the world and communicate
about it.$)
. larify complexity. (!nformation is complex when it is voluminous, dense, and
lacing in structure.)
/. harge it up. (The common assumption that art evoes emotion is reliably supported
through brain research. *hen viewers loo at both pleasant and unpleasant pictures,
they consistently demonstrate an emotional reaction indicated by pronounced brain
activity that does not occur when they loo at neutral pictures.$)
Message Design Tools
The design process and sub9processes are performed with message design. Tools that is
suitable for the type of representation that is selected during an early phase of the wor. -ain
message design tools include text (printed and spoen), symbols, pictures (drawings and
photographs), typography and layout, sound and sound effects. These tools have different
properties that offer and restrict the foundations for communication.
8unning text in a boo, a pamphlet and a report that should be read in a continuous
manner should be set between nine and twelve @ica points1. 4ere B7B characters will result in
a line that is >70B millimetre in length. The longer the line is, the larger the type si6e should be.
The shorter the line is, the smaller the type si6e can be. The x9height is important. Typefaces with
large x9 heights manage well with smaller type si6es than typefaces with small x9heights.
"ine "ength
!t is easy to change the length of lines. The length of a line will affect reading speed. The
longer the lines the wider the vertical space between them needs to be. 8eaders tend to dislie
both very short and very long lines. Tiner made extensive studies of ypography. 4e wored
with characters in si6es of nine to twelve @ica points and recommended ten to twelve words per
line. This results in a line length of eight to ten centimetres. There are, however, several other
recommendations of line length. Fuite often the optimum line length seems to be about 1 1G2alphabets 7 2 characters. This is nine to eleven centimetres with optimum character si6e, ten to
seen as relatively inflexible "perceptual rules$ that act as a fundamental constraint for the
typographer alongside such conventional rules as the left9to9right direction of the writing system.
The page9
#or reports, and similar documents, it is reasonable to use one, two, or three columns on
the page2. !n multi9columnar layouts the narrow columns should have unustified lines3. !n a
ustified text the distances between the words are too long, creating white "rivers$ of space in the
text columns. onsistent use of columns will help to establish a regular pattern throughout a
proect. There are many possibilities for
placement of the page numbers. They should be clear and easy to find. Csually readers are liely
to loo for page numbers in the margin at the bottom of the page2. 4owever, this should not to
be considered a rule.
%eadings:
+ttract the attention of the readers, mae the subect matter readily apparent, and indicate
the relative importance of items. !n order to increase the contrast it is a good idea to use larger as
well as bolder type when headings are printed in colour. 4eadings on different hierarchic levels
will provide the readers with reference points and help them organi6e information cognitively for
better retention and recall. 4eadings
shall be placed above and close to the following text. This distance shall be smaller than the
distance to the previous paragraph.
"egends:
!n information design the main function of legends (or captions as they also are called) is
to help the reader select and read the intended content in the picture. *e need to tell the readers
what we want them to see and learn from the illustration. Thus pictures in information materials
should always have legends. This is the only way to assure that information conveyed by these
pictures is clear and unambiguous.) @hotographs nearly always need a partnership with words
that will confirm, clarify and reinforce their messages. Each picture should have a legend,
unless two pictures or a series of pictures are closely together. + legend may be placed in many
ways. The legend should always be located close to the picture. 8eaders usually expect to find
the legends beneath the pictures. 4owever, legends can also be placed above, to the left, or to the
right, of the picture, but never inside the picture frame.
The legend and the picture should interact as parts of a whole. + legend can have a
heading as an additional lin between the picture and the legend. + good legend title provides ashort summary of the combined information. The title of a legend should be short and distinct.
'pplication soft"are includes end9user applications of computers such as "ord
processors or video games, and /. soft"are for groups of users.
$iddle"are controls and co9ordinates distri%uted systems!
.rogramming languages define the syntax and semantics of computer programs. #or
example, many mature baning applications were written in the ;5;< language,
originally invented in 100. %ewer applications are often written in more modern
programming languages.
0ystem soft"are includes operating systems, which govern computing resources.
Today large applications running on remote machines such as e%sites are consideredto be system software, because the end9user interface is generally through a graphical
user interface , such as a "e% %ro"ser .
#est "are is software for testing hardware or a soft"are pacage!
6irm"are is low9level software often stored on electrically programmable memory
devices. #irmware is given its name because it is treated lie hardware and run
(LexecutedL) by other software programs.
'hrin ware is the older name given to consumer9bought software, because it was
often sold in retail stores in a shrin"rapped box.
Device drivers control parts of computers such as dis drives , printers , D drives ,
or computer monitors.
@rogramming tools help conduct computing tass in any category listed above. #or
programmers, these could be tools for de%ugging or reverse engineering older legacy systems in
order to chec source code compati%ility
Tpes of soft*are
@ractical computer systems divide soft"are systems into three maor classes
0ystem soft"are ,
.rogramming soft"are and
'pplication soft"are,
+lthough the distinction is arbitrary, and often blurred.
0ystem soft"are provides the basic function for computer usage, which can be divided into
operating system and support system. 7perating system is the most basic soft"are. 0ystem
soft"are helps run the computer hardware and computer system. !t includes a combination of the
following
Device drivers
7perating systems
0ervers
8tilities
indo" systems
0ystem soft"are is responsible for managing variety of independent hard"ares, so that
they can wor together harmoniously. #or the system soft"are , computer users and other
software regard the computer as a whole and need not give concern on how
every hard"are wors. The purpose of systems soft"are is to unburden
the applications programmer from the often complex details of the particular computer being
used, including such accessories as communications devices , printers, device readers, displays
and eyboards, and also to partition the computers resources such as memory and processor timein a safe and stable manner. Examples are 9 $icrosoft indo"s , &inux , and $ac 70 9 !
Programming soft*are
.rogramming soft"are usually provides tools to assist a programmer in writing computer
programs, and software using different programming languages in a more convenient way. The
eveloper documentation may also exist, either with the code as comments andGor as
separate files, detailing how the programs wors and can be modified.
!i"rar
+n executable is almost always not sufficiently complete for direct execution. 0oft"are
li%raries include collections of functions and functionality that may be embedded in other
applications. ;perating systems include many standard 'oftware libraries, and applications are
often distributed with their own libraries.
#tandard
'ince software can be designed using many different programming languages and in many
different operating systems and operating environments , soft"are standard is needed so that
different software can understand and exchange information between each other. #or instance,an email sent from a $icrosoft 7utloo should be readable from ahoo; $ail and vice versa.
(%ecution
omputer software has to be LloadedL into the computers storage (such as the hard
drive or memory). ;nce the software has loaded, the computer is able toexecute the software.
This involves passing instructions from the application software, through the system software, to
the hardware which ultimately receives the instruction as machine code. Each instruction causes
the computer to carry out an operation 7 moving data, carrying out a computation, or altering the
control of instructions.
ata movement is typically from one place in memory to another. 'ometimes it involves
moving data between memories and registers which enable high9speed data access in the @C.
-oving data, especially large amounts of it, can be costly. 'o, this is sometimes avoided by
using LpointersL to data instead. omputations include simple operations such as incrementing
the value of a variable data element. -ore complex computations may involve many operations
and data elements together.
+ualit and relia"ilit
'oftware :uality is very important, especially for commercial and system software
lie -icrosoft ;ffice, -icrosoft *indows and <inux. !f software is faulty (buggy), it can delete
a persons wor, crash the computer and do other unexpected things. #aults and errors are called
L bugs.L -any bugs are discovered and eliminated (debugged) through software testing.
4owever, software testing rarely 7 if ever 7 eliminates every bugJ some programmers say that
Levery program has at least one more bugL (<ubarsys <aw). +ll maor software companies,
such as -icrosoft, %ovell and 'un -icrosystems, have their own software testing departmentswith the specific goal of ust testing. 'oftware can be tested through unit testing, regression
4ally, -ie (2BB>0). lectronic %rains<0tories from the da"n of the computer age.5ritish 5roadcasting orporation and &ranta 5oos, <ondon. !'5% 19?/2B>9//39.