Visual Function: An Introduction to Information Design (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Matches are tricky to use in a car and a pocket lighter dangerous..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Edward Tufte, London Underground

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Visual Function: An Introduction to Information Design presents and discusses a variety of graphics used in transmitting information, analyzing signs, graphs, and charts through a method similar to that found in Edward Tufte's books (Envisioning Information and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information), which have had an enormous influence on today's graphic designers. With copious color and black-and-white illustrations, this book examines airplane safety cards, street maps, road signs, instruction booklets, corporate logos, subway guides, magazine advertisements, cookbooks, computer diagrams, and car manuals, all as a means of explaining how information can be conveyed without words.

Paul Mijksenaar is a professor at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He is the author of numerous publications on design.

About the Author

Paul Mijksenaar is a professor at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He is the author of numerous publications on design.

Product Details

• Paperback: 56 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156898118X
• ISBN-13: 978-1568981185
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #303,688 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A manifesto and a paradox, sort of., January 4, 1998

By A Customer

This small, profusely illustrated book is, well, a personal manifesto against bad informational design. Mijksenaar does not take prisoners: his case studies (of bad design) include glitches by some of the most prominent dutch designers. Healthy, very healthy. There are some surprises, especially if your infodesign paradigm is the London underground map. The book is also a paradox, though, in that it is itself badly designed. By that I don't mean the shape, color, printing, which are pretty, but its logical content structure, which is confusing. Because it is more of a (needed) rant against bad info design, I call it a manifesto. It is an optimistic manifesto, and Visual Function is well worth reading, if only because US designers would profit from getting to know their their dutch counterparts better.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's not really a book ..., September 30, 1998

By	dack (USA) - See all my reviews

... it's more of a pamphlet. Mijksenaar provides some nice examples and interesting ideas, but I wanted much more. Once can read this "book" in less than an hour.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful examples but missing narrative cohesion, June 27, 2008

By	John D "John D" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

These excellent design examples lack just one thing: a book to contain them. This binding is not an introduction to information design but rather an unordered series of ID comparisons randomly proffered with no narrative thread and scant context, comment, or analysis. It reads like the answer key to a lab problem set.

The examples, and especially typography, are scaled down to fit an excruciatingly undersized page. Had the price of paper spiked when the publisher chose this layout? It's hard to imagine that a publisher of a book on ID would knowingly opt for such visual compression and density--a design template, it would seem, intended for crib notes or disclosure of drug side effects. Seriously. The body text is set in an over-leaded 10pt sans serif and the captions about 8pt sans serif light. The text in illustrations elludes legibility entirely. Very hard on middle-aged eyes.

Nonetheless, this slim volume wastes no time getting to thought-provoking successes and failures in graphical ID. Perhaps the best involve subway maps drawn for NYC. In explaining the failure of one particular map design, Mijksenaar notes, "When reality is radically schematized, the link with that same reality is quickly lost" (p. 6). This volume could supplement other, more comprehensive ID treatments; it should not be the only one you own.