Designing Information - Joel Katz

• Two types of grids
• Important to find a compromise between number of columns and line length that works for the reader
• Aligning information is important for legibility
• Eyes automatically look at objects in close proximity and make a connection between those elements
• Agree that most medicine leaflets are hard to read, when really all you need from the leaflet is warnings and dosages first.
• Important to set standards for presenting information so that people not related to the creation of the document can easily tell what the document is presenting.
• When creating a pictogram, it is important to represent the information simply, but also to make sure that it cannot be misunderstood.
• Follow certain standards to presenting information so that the audience can focus on it and understand it.
• Serif fonts are usually better for large amounts of information, more in print than on screen though.
• Different fonts are better for efficiency in the presentation of information because of their specific widths. Smaller font widths allow for more characters per line.
• Some fonts are more legible at different sizes and some fonts are created for use italicized or in all caps.

This image shows a poor representation of data. Not only is it hard for people to read a two-axis graph, the bars are not proportional at all to the numbers they represent, and it's hard to read what the graph is trying to tell you at first glance.