“The catch is that the style ingredients – content, presentation structure and aesthetics – are mutually dependent. Resolving these dependencies is exactly why graphic design is difficult and the reason that our style has to get smart.” (Lynda Hardman)

“Information design isn’t necessarily about databases, spreadsheets, or even infographics. It’s about process – designers and clients working together to solve problems and convey complex information though design systems that are functional and beautiful.” (Ann Senechal – Adobe Magazine)

“People come to your website on a mission. They want to do something specific. They are tunnel readers. Telling them what else you do – without annoying them – is a major challenge. Doing it well is about relevance and context. It’s about presenting the right content at the right time.” (Gerry McGovern)

“Do engineers design? Can designers engineer? Looking back at great projects throughout history, it seems these kinds of questions never needed to be asked. There was a philosophy that surfaced in many great works that to do anything well required more than one skill set or discipline. On the contrary, unchecked specialization breeds fragile and shallow ideas. As technology has progressed, I think we’ve lost our connections with the great works of the past and the philosophies and attitudes that enabled their creation. The design and engineering of modern technology, software and the web has bred a hubris that anything older than a few years can’t possibly be relevant, and I think it’s a mistake. To argue this point, there is no better place to start as a basis of comparison and learning than the story of the Brooklyn Bridge.” (Scott Berkun – UIweb) – courtesy of lawrence lee

“The introduction of an information elite does little to reassure us. Wurman (1995) sees a heroic role for ‘a group of people, small in number, deep in passion, called Information Architects’, struggling forward through the ‘field of black volcanic ash’ constituted by current design, in order to save humanity from the ‘tsunami of data that is crashing onto the beaches of the civilized world’. This sounds more like a blurb for the next Spielberg blockbuster, with Information Architects as the good guys, than as a serious proposal about the role of information design. However, the conference brochure similarly suggests that the ‘Republic of Information’ is ‘going to be laid out and planned by a new breed of architects, informed with a new level of understanding and purpose’.” (Jos de Bruin and Remko Scha – Institute of Artificial Art Amsterdam)

“In an ideal world, computers will blend into the landscape, will inform but not overburden you with information, and make you aware of them only when you need them.” (Alexandru Tugui – ACM Ubiquity)

“Information Design, ID, comprises research on analysis, planning, presentation, and understanding of a message – its content, language, and form. Regardless of the selected medium, a well designed information material will satisfy aesthetic, economic, ergonomic, as well as subject matter requirements. The study of information design can be summarised as a multi-disciplinary, multi-dimensional, and worldwide consideration.” (Rune Petterson – Information Design and Product Development, Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna, Sweden)

“People may initially scan read on the Web; their eyes moving quickly across a page. However, when they find the keywords they are interested in, they tend to tunnel read. What this means is that they focus on a specific set of content. They basically don’t see anything else on your website.” (Gerry McGovern)

“Quality links from external websites will help get more of the right people to your website. Well written links within your website will ensure your readers can act in a way you want them to. Linking is about driving action. It’s about getting the right people to the right content as quickly as possible.” (Gerry McGovern)

“Here are some pieces of the sparkline chapter from Beautiful Evidence. I hope this material will be read carefully. Perhaps several Kindly Contributors will make some beautiful and interesting sparklines (or wordgraphics) with lots of data from a variety of fields.” (Edward Tufte – Ask E.T.) – courtesy of peter merholz

“Web design and its related fields are still relatively young in the grand scheme of things and are still developing. (…) There are many different paths one can take to become a professional Web designer, each as different as the individuals that make up the Web design community.” (D. Keith Robinson – Digital Web Magazine)

“Focusing on a critical aspect in the relationship with consumers, Rob Waller and Judy Delin urge designers to create ‘cooperative’ communications – media that are relevant, clear, concise, thruthful, and informative. These attributes strengthen brand and build loyalty. Ignoring them causes confusion and doubt, weakening the connection with customers. Violating them – a ‘final straw’ experience – can end the customer relationship.” (Rob Waller)

“Design matters. It matters in everyday life. It matters in everything we consume or use. It matters in every human endeavor. Without design and those people that commit their lives to its practice, the world that would result from that absence would be an intolerable place to live.” (Andrei Herasimchuk – Design by Fire)

“Although wizards are a common feature of the interface landscape, their rigidity clearly runs counter to one of the basic tenets of user-centered design: providing the user with appropriate control over the interaction. Therefore, like the pointy-hat mystics for whom they’re named, wizards should generally be treated with suspicion and skepticism, and ideally avoided whenever possible.” (Bob Baxley – Boxes and Arrows)

“What makes Web content effective? You’ll find the answer here. Learn the basics of information design, Web writing style, and content maintenance.” (Mazzie Ballheim)

“In the hierarchy of content, the press release is a bottom feeder. It is a single cell organism. In fact, it was never meant to see the light of day. To most people, reading a press release is about as interesting as reading a parking fine. And yet press releases proliferate on the Web.” (Gerry McGovern)

“Knowledge management is often seen as a problem of capturing, organizing, and retrieving information, evoking notions of data mining, text clustering, databases, and documents. We believe that this view is too simple. Knowledge is inextricably bound up with human cognition, and the management of knowledge occurs within an intricately structured social context. We argue that it is essential for those designing knowledge management systems to consider the human and social factors at play in the production and use of knowledge.” (J. C. Thomas, W. A. Kellogg, and T. Erickson – IBM Research)

“Layout and graphics are not random: they are used creatively to express meaning, just as language is. The GeM project analyses expert knowledge of page design and layout to see how visual resources are used in the creation of documents, both printed and electronic. The genre of a page (…) plays a central role in determining what graphical devices are chosen and how they are employed.” (GeM Project Team)

“If you think it’s great to have a smiling face on your website, join the crowd. It’s hard to find a website these days that doesn’t have a happy face. Unfortunately, the happy face syndrome is often a reflection of lack of focus. When everyone is smiling, where’s the differentiation?” (Gerry McGovern)

“Content management systems suck. Or so you would think from the strife heard from analysts and practitioners alike. And yet, many websites regularly publish vast amounts of information with superior control and ease compared to manually editing pages. So where’s the disconnect between what’s possible and the too-often failure of CMS?” (Victor Lombardi – Boxes and Arrows)