Table Of Content

Message Design Rune Pettersson Message Design The illustration on the cover is part of an image from my video program “Life Patterns” presented at the first international ex- hibition “The Video Show” in London, may 1975. My “multimedia project” was one of two invited contributions from Sweden. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee pro- vided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or com- mercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Institute for Infology ISBN 978-91-85334-26-1 © Rune Pettersson Sweden, Tullinge 2022 2 Preface Information design is a multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary, and worldwide consideration with influences from areas such as design disciplines, communication disciplines, information disciplines, language disciplines, cognitive disciplines, art and aesthetic disciplines, business and law, as well as media production technologies. Message design is an interdisciplinary field of knowledge. It encompasses influences and facts from more than fifty estab- lished disciplines and areas of research. The main areas of research may be divided into six groups with “base disciplines” such as design disciplines, communication disciplines, information disciplines, language disciplines, cognitive disciplines, and art and aesthetic disciplines. The main components in message design are words, visuals and forms. These main components may be used in many different ways to produce, transmit and interpret messages of various kinds in different communication situations. Depending on the different objectives of the messages we can see different “message design genera.” These groups are graphic design, information design, instruction design, mass design, and persuasion design. Message design principles contribute to the design of effective and efficient messages. Since my retirement I have edited and revised sections of my earlier books, conference papers and reports about information design, message design, visual communication and visual literacy. Previous editions of this book were published in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. Tullinge, Sweden Rune Pettersson, Ph.D. Retired Professor of Information Design 3 Contents Preface 3 Contents 4 Communication 8 Many areas of research 8 Communication processes 9 Visual communication 10 Information 12 Design 14 Design families and design genera 17 Design processes and principles 19 General design principles 20 Design judgments 21 Design mottos 23 Quantitative information principles 24 Visual language principles 25 A few design areas 26 Emotional design 26 Industrial design 27 Information experience design 28 Interaction design 29 Interactive design 30 Light design 32 Packaging design 34 Participatory design 35 Sound design 37 Spatial design 39 User experience design 40 The message design family 43 Inter- and multi-disciplinary 44 Message design objectives 46 Graphic design 48 Graphic design objectives 49 Design by reduction 50 Modern graphic design 51 Information design 54 Some definitions 54 4 Information design objectives 56 Instruction design 58 Instruction design objectives 59 Audio-visual instruction 59 Educational technology 61 Instructional technology 67 Instructional design 69 Educational design 76 Instructional message design 78 Information visualisation 80 Instruction design summary 80 Mass design 81 Persuasion design 82 Advertising 83 Propaganda 89 Message design processes 95 Message design model 96 Analysis and synopsis 96 Production of draft 99 Production of script 100 Production of original and master 101 Competence areas 102 Message design principles 105 Selected research 106 Information design principles 106 Instructional design principles 107 Interactive design principles 108 Functional message design principles 109 Functional principles 112 Defining the problems 112 Providing clarity 115 Providing emphasis 115 Providing simplicity 116 Providing structure 116 Providing unity 117 Cognitive principles 118 Facilitating attention 118 Facilitating perception 118 Facilitating mental processing 119 5 Facilitating memory 119 Aesthetic principles 120 Aesthetic proportion principle 120 Harmony principle 120 Administrative principles 121 Information access 121 Information costs 124 Information ethics 127 Securing quality 129 Message design tools 135 Selected research 136 Verbal languages 137 Visual languages 137 Combined verbal and visual language 139 Symbols as language 140 Representing reality 141 Traditional media 141 More possibilities 142 Social media 143 Representations 146 Categories of representations 147 Internal and external representations 147 Information messages 148 Symbols and abstractness 149 Lexi-visual representations 152 AV and combined representations 159 Objectives 163 Stringent demands 163 Informative entertainment 164 Brief messages 165 Administrative documentation 167 Factual information 169 Instructions 173 Production of representations 176 Production processes 176 Graphical media 178 Video 179 Databases and multimedia 180 Podcasting 181 6 Media-industry mappings 183 Efficiency measures 183 Media evolution chart 185 The receivers 188 Receiver processes 188 Finding information 191 Finding specific information 191 The information cone 193 Information navigation 195 Navigation in hyperspace 203 Media consumption 204 Media consumption vary 205 Specialized market segments 205 Media developments 208 Research and study 210 Research methods 210 Applied research 210 A research process 214 Other research methods 215 Creating a leverage effect 217 Study perspectives 219 ID Library 221 References 222 Appendix: Main concepts 251 7 Communication Aspects of our society are becoming increasingly intertwined, and the need for communication between people is increasing. We need to communicate in order to establish contacts with one another, to maintain and improve those contacts, to exchange information and views, and to develop our societies. This chapter includes the following main sections: Many areas of research, Communication processes, and Visual communication. Many areas of research Cuttings in bone, impressions in clay, incisions in stone, notches in wood, paintings in caves, and paintings on walls are all exam- ples of visual cultural artefacts created in early human commu- nities. They all represent thoughts. People express their thoughts for many reasons, often several simultaneous reasons (Tversky, 2011). Some reasons are aesthetic: to arouse emotions, or evoke pleasure. Some reasons are behavioural and affect action, or pro- mote collaboration. Some reasons are cognitive and serve as re- minders, to focus thoughts, to reorganize thoughts, and to ex- plore thoughts. Many reasons are communicative and inform both self, and others. Communication is studied in many academic disciplines, and in many areas of research. Main areas include advertising, audience reception, audio-visual instruction, communication design, communication models, communication theories, computer science, cultivation, cultural studies, educational technology, entertainment, gender studies, gratifications theory, human-computer interaction, mass-communication, media and communication, media literacy, mediated communication, medium, one-way communications model, persuasive communication, planned communication, propaganda, technical communication, technical illustration, technical writing, technology of instruction, and many more. 8 At different universities, courses and complete academic programs in communication studies have many names, such as communication and media science, communication arts, communication sciences, communication studies, mass communication, media ecology, media studies, rhetorical studies, and speech communication. Programs may include elements of many disciplines. A few main communication disciplines will be men- tioned briefly here. Advertising, audio-visual instruction, communication design, cultural studies, culture theories, educational technology, gender studies, human-computer interaction, instructional technology, and media literacy theories are men- tioned later in this book. Communication processes Many communication and information theorists have devised models to explain the way communication processes function (De Boer and Brennecke, 2003; Hagen, 1998; Hall, 1980; Lass- well, 1948; McGonigle and Mastrian, 2011; McQuail, 2000; Mesoudi, 2011; Morley, 1992; Piette and Giroux, 1998; Schramm, 1954; Shannon and Weaver, 1949; Wartella and Reeves, 2003; Wurman et al., 2001). Many communication models have both advantages and disadvantages. In the production of information materials, a sender conveys information on a part of reality via a representation to an information receiver who, via sensory impressions, is able to obtain a perception of that reality. This perception may then evoke a re- sponse that affects the reality and/or creates some feedback to the original sender. The receiver’s perception varies as a result of a number of factors, e.g., her or his current cultural and social status, the time and stage of development, mood, experience, memory, and other cognitive processes, such as creativity. Per- ception is divorced from the representation that, in turn, is divorced from the reality. Some of our sensory impressions give rise to “garbage” and some to learning. 9 Several activities are involved when an intended message (left red circle) is created, produced, and transmitted, from a sender to a receiver, and received, processed and understood (right red circle). These processes (blue arrows) are guided by principles (upper yellow pentagons), performed with the help of tools (lower dark green pentagons) and influenced by social context. In this model the active receiver may actively reach out and grab the representation with message/medium. Visual communication The study of visual communication has developed inde- pendently within several fields of research. Thus, research on combined verbal and visual communication has had “no natural home.” Nowadays the study of visual communication is a multi- disciplinary, multi-dimensional and worldwide consideration. Müller, Kappas and Olk (2012, p. 322) noted that while pictures move easily between various media, their meaning does not al- ways follow the same path. Moriarty (1996) made an extensive mapping of the study of visual communication. She developed a bibliography with 1,617 entries grouped in the following 30 main categories (in order of precedence): 1) Memory, 2) Photography, 3) Mental imagery, 4) Cognition and information processing, 5) Visual-verbal interaction, 6) Advertising, 7) Television and video, 8) Art and fine art, 9) Perception, 10) Development and children, 11) Film and cin- ema, 12) History, 13) Visual literacy; pictorial representation, 14) Graphic design, 15) Aesthetics; creativity; gender studies and 10