InfoD: Bookwatch (37)
InfoDesign <[email protected]> Tue, 1 Feb 2005 16:46:02 +0100
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* InfoDesign Bookwatch * (37)
In this message:
1) Creating more effective graphs (Naomi Robbins)
2) Communication design. Principles, methods, and
practices (Jorge Frascara)
3) Show me the numbers: Designing tables and graphs
to enlighten (Stephen Few)
4) Informationen Gestalten. Designing Information
(Hartmut Brueckner)
From the Bookshelf:
1) Metro Maps of the World (Mark Ovenden)
2) Tracing genres through organizations: a sociocultural
approach to information design (Clay Spinuzzi)
3) The human factor. Revolutionizing the way people live
with technology (Kim Vicente)
4) Information strategy in practice (Elizabeth Orna)
_________________________________________________________________
1) TITLE: Creating more effective graphs
AUTHOR: Naomi Robbins
WEBSITE: http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-047127402X.=
html
DETAILS: Price: USD 64.95 / ISBN: 047127402X /
Published: December 2004 / 402 Pages /
Publisher: Wiley-Interscience
SUMMARY: More Effective Graphs gives you the basic knowledge
and techniques required to choose and create
appropriate graphs for a broad range of applications.
Using real-world examples, the author highlights some
of todays methods.
CONTENTS:
Preface.
1. Introduction.
2. Limitations of some common charts and graphs.
3. Human perception and our ability to decode graphs.
4. Some more effective graphs in one or two dimensions.
5. Trellis display and other ways to display more than two variables.
6. General principles for creating effective graphs.
7. Scales.
8. Applying what we've learned: before and after examples.
9. Some comments on software.
10. Questions and answers.
References.
Index.
_________________________________________________________________
2) TITLE: Communication design. Principles, methods, and practices
AUTHOR: Jorge Frascara
WEBSITE: http://www.allworth.com/Catalog/DW353.htm
DETAILS: Price: USD 24.95 / ISBN: 1-58115-365-1 /
Published: November 2004 / 240 Pages /
Publisher: Allworth Press
SUMMARY: This primer inspires young designers to look beyond
aesthetic concerns and develop an integrated,
multi-dimensional understanding of communication
design. Students learn how to approach design problems
in a methodical, professional manner; how the human
mind interprets visual and verbal messages; how
technology choices impact the design process; how
design is used in the service of information,
education, administration, and persuasion; what it
means to design for noncommercial advertising,
political and ideological propaganda.
CONTENTS:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. A description of the field
2. Historical context
3. Design principles: functional requirements
4. Economy and technology
5. Methods and planning
6. The practice: professional areas
7. Computer technologies and communication design
8. Culture and society
Conclusion
Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index
_________________________________________________________________
3) TITLE: Show me the numbers: Designing tables and graphs
to enlighten
AUTHOR: Stephen Few
WEBSITE: http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/9/emw162976.htm
http://www.analyticspress.com/show.html
http://www.perceptualedge.com/library.htm
DETAILS: Price: USD 45.00 / ISBN: 0-9706019-9-9 /
Published: September 2004 / 265 Pages /
Publisher: Analytics Press
SUMMARY: This book is a practical and comprehensive guide to
table and graph design written specifically for
business. If you create tables and graphs or manage
those who do, this book will alleviate confusion
and frustration. Following Stephen Few's clear
precepts (illustrated with examples and explanations)
you will learn to represent data clearly and drive
your message home.
CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
2. Numbers worth knowing
3. Fundamental concepts of tables and graphs
4. Fundamental variations of tables
5. Fundamental variations of graphs
6. Visual perception and quantitative communication
7. General design for communication
8. Table design
9. General graph design
10. Component-level graph design
11. Design solutions for multiple variables
12. The interplay of standards and innovation
Appendices
Index
__________________________________________________________________
4) TITLE: Informationen Gestalten. Designing Information
AUTHOR: Hartmut Brueckner
WEBSITE: http://www.informationen-gestalten.de/
DETAILS: Price: Euro 85,- / ISBN: 3-89757-223-0 /
Published: 2004 / 312 Pages /
Publisher: H. M. Hauschild, Bremen
SUMMARY: This publication gives insights into the field
of "Information Design and Typography" at the
Department of Design at the University of Applied
Sciences in M=FCnster Germany. The book contains 81
projects created by 56 of Prof.Br=FCckner's students
in a clear and highly effective presentation which
is meant to save these often extraordinary achievements
from the almost inevitable consequence of being
forgotten after the graduation presentation. Solutions
to problems are presented whose goals are quality and
comprehensibility. Information design requires
intensive intellectual effort and intelligent
visualization on a high formal level. Design must be
explicable and justifiable at all phases; its tools
are comprehensible concepts in form of representation
such as diagrams, scientific illustrations as well
as clear, precise typography.
_________________________________________________________________
* From the Bookshelf *
'From the Bookshelf' mentions books that were not recently
published, but that we have missed on introduction.
1) TITLE: Metro Maps of the World
AUTHOR: Mark Ovenden
WEBSITE: http://www.metromapsoftheworld.com/metro_html.htm
http://www.urbanrail.net/shop/metromaps/metro-maps-of-the-wor=
ld.htm
http://www.capitaltransport.com/
DETAILS: Price: Euro 39; GBP 25,- / ISBN: 1 85414-272-0 /
Published: November 2003 / 144 Pages /
Publisher: Capital transport
SUMMARY: This book brings together the official current metro
maps and diagrams from over 100 of the world's major
Subway, U-Bahn, Metro and Underground systems. From
the world's oldest urban railways to those still on
the drawing board. Metro Maps Of The World is an
essential atlas of contemporary system maps reproduced
by kind permission of virtually every operator round
the globe.
_________________________________________________________________
2) TITLE: Tracing genres through organizations: a sociocultural
approach to information design
AUTHOR: Clay Spinuzzi
WEBSITE:=20
http://babbage2.cwrl.utexas.edu/~spinuzzi/spinuzzi_drupal/?q=3Dnode/104
http://mitpress.mit.edu/ search for 'Spinuzzi'.
DETAILS: Price: USD 35.-; GBP 22.95 / ISBN: 0-262-19491-0 /
Published: October 2003 / 264 Pages /
Publisher: MIT Press
SUMMARY: This book examines the everyday improvisations by
workers who deal with designed information and shows
how understanding this impromptu creation can improve
information design. Spinuzzi argues that the traditional
user-centered approach to design does not take into
consideration the unofficial genres that spring up as
workers write notes, jot down ideas, and read aloud from
an officially designed text. These often ephemeral
innovations in information design are vital components
in a genre ecology (the complex of artifacts mediating a
given activity). When these innovations are recognized
for what they are, they can be traced and their evolution
as solutions to recurrent design problems can be studied.
Spinuzzi proposes a sociocultural method for studying these
improvised innovations that draws on genre theory (which
provides the unit of analysis, the genre) and activity
theory (which provides a theory of mediation and a way
to study the different levels of activity in an
organization).
_________________________________________________________________
3) TITLE: The human factor. Revolutionizing the way people live
with technology
AUTHOR: Kim Vicente
WEBSITE: http://www.routledge-ny.com/books.cfm?isbn=3D0415970644
DETAILS: Price: USD 27.95 / ISBN: 0415970644 /
Published: February 2004 / 368 Pages /
Publisher: Routledge
SUMMARY: Technology innovation is progressing so quickly that
we have fallen behind our ability to manage it. Our
world is filled with objects that invite human
error - from VCRs to stoves to hospitals, airplane
cockpits, and nuclear power plants. Problems-some
potentially catastrophic-continuously arise when
designs are developed without human nature in mind.
What we really need, argues Kim Vicente, is technology
that works for people.
In this book, Vicente makes clear how we
can bridge the widening gap between people and
technology. He investigates every level of human
activity--from simple matters such as our hand-eye
coordination to complex human systems such as
government regulatory agencies, and why businesses
would benefit from making consumer goods easier to
use. He shows us why we all have a vital stake in
reforming the aviation industry, the health industry,
and the way we live day-to-day with technology.
_________________________________________________________________
4) TITLE: Information strategy in practice
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Orna
WEBSITE: http://www.gowerpub.com/TitleDetails.asp?sQueryISBN=3D0566085=
798
DETAILS: Price: USD 69.95; GBP 35.00 / ISBN: 0-566-08579-8 /
Published: March 2004 / 164 Pages /
Publisher: Gower publishing
SUMMARY: Information Strategy in Practice provides:
- a reliable account of the key processes involved
in developing organizational information policy
and strategy, with realistic suggestions on carrying
them through, drawn from actual practice
- a sound framework of the ideas underlying the
practice recommended, which readers can relate
to their own context
- advice from experience about dealing with the
kind of problems that often beset
information-strategy development, and about
getting the best from the process.
_________________________________________________________________
InfoDesign Bookwatch is compiled and edited by Piet Westendorp
and Karel van der Waarde. Suggestions for titles are welcome,
and may be sent to: [email protected]
_________________________________________________________________
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