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Idea Journal #4

In the week 8 reading, we learned that information designers started to use multiple platforms to depict their information. Instead of using a single platform, such as print, interactive or environmental to convey these different informational designs, many designers are combining different ways to help deliver these information. “They combine and overlap platforms to ensure that the user has what they need to decode and understand the message in an appropriate form” (Coates & Ellison, 2014, p. 324). The ‘I Walk New York’ a plan for pedestrian wayfinding in New York City (2011) is a project that is based on research and understanding of the user’s needs. Through this case study, Coates & Ellison helped us understand the diversity of information design and that information can be viewed in multiple forms depending on the person and where the information is being viewed.

Vancouver’s TransLink system and the newly renovated Commercial-Broadway station is an example similar to that of the ‘I Walk New York’. The project was designed and develped following study of the skytrain station in January 2014. Commercial-Broadway station was part of the Phase 2 upgrades as part of the TransLink Maintenance and Repair Program to improve safety, capacity and comfort to customers. Commercial–Broadway Station is one of the busiest stations on the TransLink network system with trip on the Expo & Millennium Lines and also bus trips using the 99 B-Line. As part of the Phase 2 upgrades, they aimed to make it easier for passengers to board buses and transfer between different train lines. (TransLink, 2019).

TransLink. Commercial-Broadway Station Upgrades (2019). Retrieved from https://www.translink.ca/Plans-and-Projects/TransLink-Maintenance-and-Repair-Program/Rail-Projects/Commercial-Broadway-Station-Upgrades.aspx)

The planning stage allows people to plan their trip which can be accessed via print or digital media. These platforms help provide people with options regarding the various travel modes to help them reach their destination. TransLink’s planning stages consists of TransLink Maps at each station and also digital planners that transit riders can use to plan out their trip from home or on the way. The digital medias can be accessed via the TransLink website (web/mobile), Google Maps (web/mobile) or the Transit App (mobile) which all provide users with maps and route options.

“The moving stage are the tools that allow people to make decisions along the way. They provide orientation, direction and identification information and are located at key landmarks, focal points, decision points and areas of rest” (Coates & Ellison, 2014, p. 338). TransLink provides transit riders with these tools by implementing maps inside of skytrains that light-up at current location to help orient the passengers. They also have labelled signs to help direct passengers in the necessary directions, print bases emergency alert sign at stations to help with inconvenience, and part of the Phase 2 upgrades the newly renovated stations are equipped with digital screens that provide riders with directional information, live updates/alerts and train arrival times.

The last stage is the changing stage which includes “tools that allow people to make decisions about their journey when changing from one mode to another” (Coates & Ellison, 2014, p. 338). This is something that is necessary at busy stations and transit hubs. TransLink provides riders with audio announcements at each station/stop on all busses and trains to help users identify their current location and what direction the transportation is going. The audio announcers also provide riders with important information such as alerts and necessary transfers at station hubs. Another example of the changing stage is at Commercial-Broadway Station. As part of the Phase 2 upgrades, Commercial has a newly build overhead walkway that links the new platform with the Millennium Line platforms, this provides riders with easier transfers making it more convenient and by providing a new platform it allows passengers to board and disembark from both sides of the train reducing the amount of overcrowding at the station.

In conclusion, “we live in a world that is full of information” (Coates & Ellison, 2014, p. 350). We receive information through many different mediums and platforms. Informational designer should produce solutions that satisfy the needs and demands of the user, not just the needs and demand of the designer, which requires understanding and study of users. They will then analyze the information that they discover and propose the most logical/appropriate way to present the required information for users to access. (Coates & Ellison, 2014, p. 350)

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Idea Journal #3

The key elements of the main ideas I learnt from the chapters 6 and 7 readings were that to be a good designer you need to curious with design and use what you know and have experience and just keep trying and testing out your designs/ideas. The readings has taught me that a lot of things are involved in contributing to an information designer’s design process and the outcomes of their final information designs and many specific types of mediums. Kathryn Coates and Andy Ellison greatly talked about the importance of lateral thinking and how it is essential to design. Doing lots of lateral thinking helps you branch out your ideas, this involves using your personal experiences to help influence your work. “We absorb our surroundings both subconsciously and consciously” (Coates & Ellison, 2014, p. 213) so everything that has happened in your life could possible be involved in making your design different from others. I agree with this statement because everyone experiences thing differently in life and it has different affects on you even if the experience is shared with someone else. Lateral thinking allows you to take personal experiences that are unique to you and allows you to use them creatively in your designs. Thinking laterally also allows you to sketch out ideas more rapidly and allows you to be able to branch off of one specific idea into many other different approaches. This will help you as a designer to be able to quickly identify various methods/most appropriate approaches to present a certain type of data for the specific project. By using your experiences and the world around you to influence your designs it allows the designs to adapt and change over time. 

Above are two example of an information designs that has gone through lots of ideation/changed over time, these are logos of big American corporations, Nike and Pepsi. The designs have evolved and changed as it became more popular and recognizable. Each logo design becomes more simple and clean, getting rid of unnecessary elements. The current Nike logo is only represented by the famous Nike check mark and the current Pepsi logo is only represented by the Pepsi Globe with the swirling red, white and blue because the visual designs are recognizable enough for people to easily identify them without having to rely on the text/name of the company. “Information designer edit and interpret these stories visually for the audience to clearly understand.” Designer filters out the unnecessary information, so that the story can be communicated briefly without any interference (Coates & Ellison, 2014, p. 221). The current logo designs have changed and adapted based on their cultural and environmental surroundings.

Chapter 7 talks more about the outcome of a print-based, interactive and environmental information design. Print-based design can be difficult because it’s more challenging to keep an audience engaged and interested in the content of the design. The print-based medium restricts the designers but is also offers an experience no other design can offer, it offers a physical experience. Materials are something that is considered for all the design types. A good print-based design can achieve a good physical experience by using different materials and textures that keeps the audiences engaged and interested in the contents they’re seeing/reading. An example could be a business card (pictured below) with a soft textured matte material, it could also have extrude/intrude/gloss type or raised print, making it stand out from other business cards that are printed on regular card-stock paper. 

Types, distance, scale, legibility all need to be considered for interactive and environmental design, the “designs must also be appropriate for it’s function, it’s audience and also it’s location”, have longevity, be user-friendly and durable (Coates & Ellison, 2014, p. 270). A good example of environmental information design is the directory and labels in the Seattle Public Library. The library is designed for people to easily navigate through and find what they’re looking for. The sections are divided up in a logical way making it easy to understand and get around. Each section also has big text labels making it helpful for you to visual identify where you are and where you need to go. The design takes into account the distance, scale, legibility, readability and is appropriate for different types of audiences based on a library environment.

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IMAGE #1: This sign is an example of good information design because it considers all type of audiences. This design combines multiple universal sign/symbols and a text description to simply communicate to all types of transit riders. “Not everyone speaks the same language and it is this visual representation that makes it easy for visitors to recognize, digest and navigate information” (Coates & Ellison, 2014). The visual design helps locals, elderly, and foreign visitors to digest and easily understand the meaning of the sign without having to read the description. This sign is shaped as a yield symbol (upside down triangle) that is used universally to indicate to drivers on the road to yield. Additionally, it combines the universal symbols of a handicap and elderly person to further support the text description.

IMAGE #2: This double sided informational pamphlet that was passed out at Commerical-Broadway station is a great and simple information design. Even though it’s very small and simple, it helps provide transit riders with all the new information they need to use the new platform. This pamphlet helps convey their information both visually and through text. Visually it has many contrasting elements, which is great for people with visual impairment since it will help them separate out all the elements on the pamphlet. Unlike other informational pamphlets this transit pamphlet isn’t packed with a heavy chunk of information (texts), it only highlights the relevant chunk of important information you need to simply navigate through and use the new platform (Coates & Ellison, 2014). By keeping the information very short but descriptive, it provides a minimal design that also gets the information they need across. The pamphlet also provides a link where riders can go to get more information.

IMAGE #3: This large platform map placed on the wall of skytrain platform helps transit riders with their daily commute making it both easier and faster. The map indicated the direction the train is travelling, all the stations on the specific transit line and also the current location/platform the train is at. This map helps provides information the is useful to both daily commuters and first time transit riders. Daily commuters can easily indicate what station they’re currently at through the train’s window and how many more they have to reach their destination. For first time transit riders, it helps them identify which station they’re at and if they’re on the correct platform/side of the platform they need to be on to travel to their destination. The maps has good contrasts in color and hierarchy to indicated the direction of the train and separate all the other information that is also provided on the map. The map shows greyed out stations to indicate stations in the opposite direction or stations passed, major bus routes (B-Line) and where you can switch to change skytrain line (millennium line).

IMAGE #4: This waste bin is a good example since it’s designed to help all types of people understand and easily organize their waste. Since this is a waste bin in a public area it needs to be easily and quickly identified by all type of people. This waste bin has multiple colours which helps it to be easily identified from a distance but also helps with the waste organization. “Contrast is a very important element when designing with visual impairment in mind” (Coates & Ellison, 2014). This bin has very good colour contrasts present, the bin is coloured black, green and blue just like house hold bins. Black indicating garbage wastes, green indicating organic/food wastes, and blue indicating recyclable items. This bin also provides a large text description at the top and front of each bin and examples of what waste can be place in the specific opening on the front side so anybody looking at it can easily identify where their trash should be placed. The bins also provide clear icons on all visible surfaces. The symbols are great for people who don’t understand english or cannot read the text description like children or tourists. The height and openings of the bin is also good for all types of people.

IMAGE #5: This emergency procedure informational poster is a good design compared to other emergency posters since its simple, not heavily packed with information and has good visual contrasts. This poster provides a good layout that is easy to follow with icons and a short list description of procedures/directions for each specific emergency event. The Icons are very clear and good in size to help visual communicate the corresponding text. Important information are all placed on the left side which makes it easy to locate. Another reason the text descriptions and all the information are easy to navigate and location is because the text is large in size and easy to read from a far. Even though the procedures are mainly conveyed through text, the visual icons are very well represented making it good to also convey all the information for people who aren’t able to read the text since legibility can have a dramatic effect on how the design is to a visually challenged audience (Coates & Ellison, 2014).

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Image #1: The purpose of this informational mail out is to represent a promotion/offer for a specific valued customer. At first glance the only thing a person’s eye focuses on is the big red “Save 3 cents per Litre”, from there it is hard to decided where to look next and what to read. The visual hierarchy is confusing and not greatly designed. The contrast and colour hierarchy are present highlighting the offer and what site to visit, however, the type hierarchy isn’t as visually distinct. The type sizes between the title, body message, and the information at the bottom are too similar making everything look the same such as one cluster and equally important. To make this mail out easier to read and navigate, the title and body messages should be more distinct and have a bigger contrast in size or font style. For example, the title can be bolded and slightly larger and the information text at the bottom can be decreased in size.

Image #2: This is a packaging tube for a shower gel. The design is very simple and have good hierarchy, however, it’s lacking relevant information. The product has some information labeled that isn’t relevant such as the addresses of company and website link. To make this product better, the information on the current bottle could be replaced with ingredients and information about the directions for use. Even though shower gels are products used by a majority of people, not all products may have the same directions for use and more importantly the ingredients in a product could cause allergic reactions to different type of peoples so having a short list of ingredients helps the targeted audience find the information they need.

Image #3: This poster for ‘Humble & Frank’ products has too many things going on that it looks a bit overwhelming and hard to read. There are many different colours, font types and sizes and not consistently designed. The poster is sampling colours from the product’s actual labels and used as background for the body text to overlay on which makes the products not pop out as much as they should. The colour of the background are overwhelming the visual photographs of the products. Another problem with this poster is that it’s lacking in consistency and type hierarchy. The font used for the description of the products isn’t consistent with the brand/aesthetic and slightly difficult to read. The type sizes are also not consistent in size which creates no visual type hierarchy.

Image #4: This is an informational poster in a supermarket. The design is very simple and clean but also slightly hard to read. The overlaying of the texts over the busy background photo makes some of the text difficult to read. The important information of the Ocean Wise symbol is also too long and too small to quickly convey messages to customers in a supermarket environment. Informational posters in a supermarket should have information simple displayed and easy to digest since customers are quickly moving throughout the store and not everyone will have time to browse and cruise around reading everything. Information can be easily missed or ignored if it’s too small or too long. To make this poster better, the opacity of the image could be lowered to create a slight fade which will help make the text pop out more. The body text could also be shorted and slight increased in size to help better convey the message.

Image #5: Condiment packages should be simple but they should also contain all the important information consumers should know before consuming the product. Similar to image #2 these condiment packages are lacking important informations such as ingredients and the expiration date of the product. The most important information that can be labeled on a food product is the expiration date and the sweet ’n sour package is missing that. This information helps the targeted audience indicate whether the product is still good to consume. Although the sweet ’n sour sauce package lacks the expiration date, it does have information of where to find the list of ingredients. It indicated that consumers should visit the website for the ingredients. The McChicken sauce however is the opposite, it has an expiration date displayed on the back but no information about the ingredients in the sauce. Since not everyone is able to access the web or know how to access the web especially older people. Both information are equally important and should be labeled on the packaging. Lacking these information makes the design of these packages a bad example of information design since they are not considering all targeted audiences.