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“If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”
Henry Ford (Quoted in Katz, p. 67)
When Massimo Vignelli dared to redesign the New York City subway map, he stirred up quite a bit of controversy. His creation left out many unnecessary details in favor or of a color-coded system that made it easier for commuters to understand. It was viewed as design success but derided by new Yorkers for its lack of geographical authenticity.
Vignelli illustrates that sometimes it is necessary to take risks in order to solve design problems. His map may not have been universally accepted, but it did open a space where map (and other) designers understood the need to create to solve problems. In my own facilitation, my classmates surprised me with the depth and variety of maps they were able to locate. On my own I would have never selected some of what I saw. It grew my understanding and opened my mind further to the vastness of design possibilities.
“Would you rather have your audience read all of less or none of more?”
Katz, p. 79
Katz is pointing out a trend that pervaded every topic that we covered. We looked at topics entitled, Too much information, Information overload, Too many numbers, How big, and Numerical integrity. This is not an exhaustive list, but it points to the notion that good design is tied to quantity. And the quantity is always lesser. We always try to scale big numbers down to smaller, more manageable amounts.
A central theme in my facilitated topic was the breaking up of maps into smaller regions in order to create cleaner, less cluttered maps. Several students felt that making the design area smaller, was the best way to achieve design success.
“Movement network maps highlight the conflicts between functionalism (how it works), rationalism (how it should work), experientialism (how it feels), and geography (how it “actually” is)”
(Katz, p. 181).
This sentiment applies to any type of design. Katz also adds that the “data the designer, and the audience are the fundamental continuum in information design” (p. 17). With all these factors and actors involved in the creation of information design, the effect of each should be carefully weighed to ensure successful communication. It might not simply be a matter of everyone pulling in the same direction; some may need to push while others might be expected just to hold.
“Trying to understand the needs of the user and the context in which the design is used will foster a deeper understanding of design function and empathy with the user”
(Katz, p. 125)
One way to approach design is to view it as if one is creating something with the specific intent of handing it over to others. This thing, once created, will cease to be claimed by the creator. This is a difficult concept to grasp yet could save so many designers so many problems.
The facilitations and other assignments made one thing clear: if we can see it, someone designed it and it is therefore open to analysis. Gladson Natarajan made an eye-opening point when he wasn’t sure “what the story is supposed to tell” through the map. (Pierre, Facilitation 6, Slide 6-6) I hadn’t considered maps as vehicles for narratives. In doing so, I started looking at all other forms of information design as telling some type of story outside of the obvious message being communicated.
“Often the designer falls into the trap of designing for appearance, and using the data, or content, not as the core of a communications process but as the foundation for explorations of visual excess and irrelevance”
(Katz, p. 17)
We know bad design when we see it. The cluttered text and images and other design elements. The incorrect tracking or kerning that inadvertently conveyed the wrong message. The innocent image of a fruit that somehow planted naughty ideas in our minds. The map that sent us five hours astray. We are all designers to some extent because we know when an information design piece failed to do what it was meant to do. It is easy to get carried away and try to show off our prowess with the tools of information design. And we have all fallen into this trap. But this goes back to keeping the audience in mind. Always.