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The Information Design
approach to web design and web development
Aside from people, information is the single most
valuable asset for business. At every level, in every
department, for every company, information is critical.
The better the information, the more successful the
company and the people within it can be. Improving
products and services, understanding markets, improving
internal process and communication—information is the
catalyst that allows people to see the best course and
to make substantive change, as well as often being the
deliverable itself.
More than its value to business, information is also the
principle component to human knowledge and progress. By
experiencing information—through any of the available
senses—people are able to build knowledge. Particularly
when the information is relevant and good, people are
able to make better decisions, to be more effective, to
be happier and to increase their well-being.
That is why information is so critical to business. The
better the information, the better the business. The
better the information, the better the people. The
better the business and people, the more profitable the
business can be.
Information Design is dedicated to making information as
effective as possible. Effective is a carefully chosen
word here. In order to be as effective as possible,
information must carefully balance a variety of factors,
including, but not limited to clarity, relevance,
timeliness, amplitude, volume, and differentiation.
Different practitioners and groups from disciplines like
graphic design, information architecture, and writing
have explicitly or implicitly laid claim to the term
Information Design, or to being the best discipline for
producing more effective information. The reality is
that Information Design is a careful balance of those
disciplines and not the domain of any one.
As information is the most critical non-human
contributor to achieving business goals, and is the key
component to building human knowledge and increased
success, the discipline dedicated to making information
as effective as possible is naturally the
meta-discipline for business.
And that is Information Design.
Information Design and Web development
Information Design is geared toward information
solutions in general—as opposed to Web solutions in
particular. That broader understanding of the dynamic
inter-relationship of the myriad contexts, strategies
and tactics pertaining to the creation of successful
information is invaluable. It is also particularly
relevant in providing excellent direction for Web
development. Information Design is critical to better
Web development in the following four ways:
1. Information Design clarifies goals and objectives
Clients often know what they want but rarely understand
what they need. Requests for functionality ranging from
live chat to online stores to sophisticated content
management functionality may not help the client achieve
their business goals. Web design professionals are
obligated to focus on the business goals of their
clients and make recommendations that are in the
client's best interests.
Information Design grounds that consultation and
planning process. By approaching the Web project as an
information solution, among the galaxy of information
solutions and organizational realities that face
clients, developers are equipped to design a Web site or
application that best contributes to their business
success.
2. Information Design provides a broader context
Even for modest static sites, good Web design is
relatively involved and complicated. In any effort to
successfully navigate the development process, it is
simple to lose sight of the relationship between the
project itself and the broader context, including:
- The original business goals that led to the site being
created or modified
- The client’s unique position now, the position they want
to be in later, the other tactics that they have or are
planning to initiate, and how all of those factors
juxtapose with the Web tactic itself
- Those same factors in the client’s competition
- The unique position of the client’s current and
potential customers, as well as employees, communities
and key stakeholders, and how those groups juxtapose
with the Web tactic itself
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These are largely strategic concerns that need to be
factored in at the beginning of a Web development
project, then monitored and considered throughout the
project lifecycle. However, those considerations are not
the sole domain of the project leaders or strategists.
Information Design requires that all team members have
an acute awareness of the broader contextual concerns
that resulted in this tactic being selected in the first
place, and that awareness must be balanced and addressed
in the final deliverable. Awareness and acknowledgement
of these considerations—even by the most tactical and
production-oriented of the team members—provides
immeasurable added value and the highest likelihood that
the final deliverable will be as effective as possible.
3. Information Design balances the various specialties
that participate in Web development
Inevitably, most Web designers or Web development
companies have their own particular specialties. Whether
in the structure and content, the interface design, the
application development—or any sub-specialty therein—it
is apparent from the final product that there is a bias
toward the comfort level or organizational strengths of
the producers.
Information Design as a discipline insists that the
focus remain on making the information—with information
in this case being the final Web site—as effective as
possible. Applying this to the design itself can
manifest in a few different ways and is best if all
occur together:
By assigning someone not on the core production team as
the Information Designer or Director (or really any
title you prefer) to ensure the final deliverable is
appropriately balanced
By providing all team members with a short list of
essential elements that would contribute to successful
Information Design for this unique project, in order to
guide their thinking and production
By insisting on collaboration and cross-pollination of
team members from different disciplines, to give them a
better sense of the why, how and what each other is
doing
By proactively balancing the different components and
specialties, you will best be able to achieve the goals
and objectives of the project, with the final product
thus proving as effective as possible.
4. Information Design focuses on the dynamic nature of
strong Web development
The most effective Web development is that which stakes
out the strongest position between a myriad of
considerations, including:
The articulated goals of the project
The client’s internal situation
The client’s market situation
The target audiences
The project budget
The available technologies
The composition and capability of the development team
During the development process, it is easy to lose sight
of one or many of these key components, and the project
suffers for being too close to some of the
considerations and too far from others.
As such, a strong process naturally incorporates a
healthy and regular mechanism for balancing the
different considerations. Information Design requires
that the core considerations that guide the project be
far forward throughout the project lifecycle, ideally
incorporating research and actual testing where
appropriate. This will ensure that the final deliverable
achieves the proper balance to maximize effectiveness
and business success.
Think on an Information Design level, not a Web
development level
Everyone has their unique background and area of
specialty. Within each of the core disciplines is a
wealth of established practices and processes that
contribute to great work. Focusing on doing your part on
a strong Web development team can certainly take the
team—and the product—a long way.
But even if you are doing great work, are you best
achieving the business goals of your clients? Are you
considering the inter-relationship between this Web
development project and their traditional methods for
sales and marketing, or their traditional communication
channels, or their traditional workflow patterns? Do you
appreciate the dynamic relationship that this has to
that and inform all of your production decisions from
that perspective? Are you cognizant that, rather than
building a Web site, you are building an information
solution?
Information Design positions you to answer all of those
questions in the affirmative. It positions you to do
work that is not only “great” from an objective
perspective as evaluated by your peers, but from the
more important subjective perspective of your clients
and the health of their business. The work that you do
is far more broad and important than you might realize.
You just need to stand back, look at it from the proper
perspective and take advantage of it. |
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Web Design South Africa |
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