typography is ia - euroia 2013 poster

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Typography is Information Architecture Boon Chew / Euro IA 2013 [email protected] / @boonych relationships There has always been an invisible overlap between information architecture and typography. Typefaces provide the building blocks we use to build systems and spaces people use. Typography, like IA, also concerns organising information, conveying meaning, shaping culture, and facilitating great experiences. Typography is IA in its purest form. As IAs, how can we better understand typography to improve the way people navigate, find, orientate, understand, and interact with systems? This poster introduces four perspectives to explain how typography fits into the practice of information architecture. systems Ralf Herrmann, opentype.info (image used with permission) perception We have to be sensitive to the underlying systems that make typefaces visible. A medium’s properties – screen, wood, paper, metal – dictate and enable the lines, shades and shapes that translate into type. Some typefaces do a better job than others. Verdana, shown here, was designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft to around the pixellated screens of the 1990s, to maximise readability at smaller sizes. When produced in print form, Verdana feels really clunky and unsophisticated beside more widely used typefaces in the print industry. Typography affects our comprehension as much as how we feel about it. Body typefaces are used for longer form content, where legibility and readibility matters. Display typefaces, work hard to project personality and evoke emotions within us – nostalgia, playfulness, fear, romance. patterns The title of the A List Apart website is shown in part on purpose (that’s what it looks like scrolled all the way to the top). We only need a brief glance to get understand what it is, because it makes sense in this context. Our eye reads information through a series of short bursts across the text – a phenomenon known as saccades – where our recognition of shapes become words and meaning, all in a matter of seconds. As Erik Spiekermann describes it, “type is all about rhythm and space. It’s not about form very much.” Finally, relationships is about how we bring it all together. How information is organised and prioritised. As well as how information works in relation to space around it, the boundaries of what contains it, and the objects within. This also means trying to avoid creating relationships that don’t make sense, such as “hidden” messages, or orphaned words at the end of a paragraph or sentence. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlt/2889726705/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/mshades/4287009210 http://www.domusweb.it/en/design/states-of-design-06-in-your-face-/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/69703846@N00/4370879701/

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I presented this poster at EuroIA 2013 in Edinburgh. It presents four perspectives from which IAs can understand and apply typography more meaningfully in their work - systems, perception, patterns, and relationships.

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Page 1: Typography is IA - EuroIA 2013 poster

Typography is Information ArchitectureBoon Chew / Euro IA [email protected] / @boonych

relationships

There has always been an invisible overlap between information architecture and typography.

Typefaces provide the building blocks we use to build systems and spaces people use. Typography, like IA, also concerns organising information, conveying meaning, shaping culture, and facilitating great experiences.

Typography is IA in its purest form.

As IAs, how can we better understand typography to improve the way people navigate, find, orientate, understand, and interact with systems?

This poster introduces four perspectives to explain how typography fits into the practice of information architecture.

systems

Ralf Herrmann, opentype.info (image used with permission)

perception

We have to be sensitive to the underlying systems that make typefaces visible. A medium’s properties – screen, wood, paper, metal – dictate and enable the lines, shades and shapes that translate into type.

Some typefaces do a better job than others. Verdana, shown here, was designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft to around the pixellated screens of the 1990s, to maximise readability at smaller sizes. When produced in print form, Verdana feels really clunky and unsophisticated beside more widely used typefaces in the print industry.

Typography affects our comprehension as much as how we feel about it.

Body typefaces are used for longer form content, where legibility and readibility matters. Display typefaces, work hard to project personality and evoke emotions within us – nostalgia, playfulness, fear, romance.

patterns

The title of the A List Apart website is shown in part on purpose (that’s what it looks like scrolled all the way to the top). We only need a brief glance to get understand what it is, because it makes sense in this context.

Our eye reads information through a series of short bursts across the text – a phenomenon known as saccades – where our recognition of shapes become words and meaning, all in a matter of seconds.

As Erik Spiekermann describes it, “type is all about rhythm and space. It’s not about form very much.”

Finally, relationships is about how we bring it all together. How information is organised and prioritised. As well as how information works in relation to space around it, the boundaries of what contains it, and the objects within.

This also means trying to avoid creating relationships that don’t make sense, such as “hidden” messages, or orphaned words at the end of a paragraph or sentence.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlt/2889726705/http://www.flickr.com/photos/mshades/4287009210

http://www.domusweb.it/en/design/states-of-design-06-in-your-face-/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69703846@N00/4370879701/