Info / Instructional design

INFORMATION / INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Definition:

Information / instructional design is a form of design that is to provide information to the user in a quick and effective manner. Information or instructional design is a design which is created and intended to supply a certain message or amount of information to a particular audience. An information design will usually have a hierarchy or special order in which objects/ information is to be displayed. Usually from most important to least important.

Information design is used to give some sort of navigation or a sense of what to do. For an information design to be a successful one it must be clear as to what is being communicated. Providing misleading information or having the design be a confusing one can cause the design to be a bad one. These types of designs can be expressed in forms from diagrams, to written instructions. but the aim is to provide a clean design so it can be interpretated and information can easily be taken from it.


Examples:

- Road signs (stop signs, traffic lights etc.)
- Maps, GPS
- Graphs, tables, diagrams, written instructions.


Image of information / instructional design.





Stop sign. Online, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stop_sign.png, last acessed March 2009.


This example of the stopsign as an information design is a good one. This is because it clearly communicates the message to stop, whilst also being an instruction design.