From effective knowledge management to a growing need for users to customise information, Sue Walker and Mark Barratt look at how information design can help with new business concerns and future trends
There is a trend towards the provision of publicly accessible web-delivered information resources, providing information on such matters as public services, health, education, legal matters, etc. The quality of the information design will be a key factor in the success of such resources.
Electronic systems have made it possible to customise many kinds of information to suit the circumstances and needs of individual users or user groups. Billing systems are an example. This is a trend that is likely to continue. It poses special problems for the information designer, who must allow for countless different combinations of data items on a page or screen, and it requires close co-operation between information designers and information and communication technology specialists.
A more holistic, integrated approach to design is becoming widespread among information designers. For example, a good designer, if asked to design a form, will begin by asking what the form does and why it is needed. This may lead to a much wider reappraisal of an organisation's documentation systems. If the need for the form is confirmed, the designer will want to know about the requirements of everyone involved with it in any way (the stakeholders), and will consider the content and wording of the form as well as its visual appearance. Increasingly, this suggests problem-solving teams which include information designers with business process analysts, information systems professionals and so on.
Helping an organisation to correlate and exploit the information it holds - is critical to success. Information design is increasingly concerned with knowledge management, particularly in finding and presenting significant patterns in disparate information sources.
There may be a move towards laying down minimum acceptable standards or regulations governing the presentation of certain kinds of information. Patient information leaflets and contracts of various kinds might be examples of this trend.
The provision of taught postgraduate education in information design is a relatively new and necessary development.