[David Sless asked me to forward this message to the list. Regards, Karel. [log in to unmask]]
Hi Carel,
On 06/02/2012, at 8:54 AM, Carel Kuitenbrouwer wrote:
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> This preliminary research is based on the hypothesis that the practice of information design, more specifically the design of infographics, is founded on scant formal knowledge or methodical research.
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> I would be most grateful for any thoughts or resources that might falsify this hypothesis.
If you want to alienate yourself from the Information Design community, this would be a good opening hypothesis.
This type of hypothesis is neither new nor useful, as it begins by dismissing at least a few hundred years of knowhow.
After reviewing research which started with your hypothesis applied to numerical data, Michael Macdonald-Ross in 1977 (How Numbers are Shown: a review of the research on the presentation of quantitative data in texts Audio-Visual Communication Review 25 pp 359-409:) wrote:
> In general, the advice given by the best practical communicators has been substantially vindicated. One or two research workers quite openly suggested that such advice was just ‘a matter of opinion’ and hence likely to be wrong as right. The body of research reviewed here does not bear out this view. On the contrary:
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> is no known case where a well articulated and deeply held practical viewpoint has been overturned, and many cases where the practitioner has been upheld...... It pays to remember that graphic communication is an art, that is, a skill which results from knowledge and practice. (pp 400–401).
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David Jonassen (Jonassen 1982) in his Preface to The Technology of Text, used this hypothesis thus:.
> ...the technology of text is the application of a scientific approach to text design. It exists as a counter- point to the artistic and unsystematic approach to text design and layout that has prevailed since petro- glyphs were first inscribed on walls. (Jonassen 1984, page x)
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Rob Waller wrote an excellent critique of this claim (I' don't have the reference to hand.), basically pointing out centuries of practical, systematic and rigorous investigation by typographers.
And James Hartley, a psychologist with long familiarity with typography, after reviewing the research literature that proceeded from your hypothesis says:
> The research literature does offer some generalisations but such advice to printers hardly seems world-shattering (Hartley 1978, p 109)Hartley J 1978. Designing Instructional Text, London: Kegan Paul
He comments also about the usefulness of the research to designers:
> [R]esearch in these areas is not very helpful to designers of instructional material, principally because such variables as typesize, line length and interline space have been studied independently of the typographic design of highly structured information (ibid., p. 109)
There may be a few things here that you want to think about in relation to infographics. I would also suggest that you look at some of the work of leading researchers in the field: Clive Richards and Yuri Engelhardt and Bob Horn spring to mind.
David
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