An Interactive Spot: Information/Instructional Design, Examples

Almost any graph, map or visual instruction could be used as an example of information and instructional design, the category broad yet its content simple enough. Such example can include:

Maps
Maps, however detailed or simplistic, offer the audience with a view (most often a bird’s eye view) of their desired subject, designed to reflect the most important information the viewer may be after. An example, CityRail’s railway routes provide a mapped out design as to what line, indicated by colour, travels to where and what stations consist on that line.

Signs
Signs provide important information at, most of the time, quick analysis. For example, road signs must be direct and provide the most vital information to ensure a driver’s understanding of the road and its conditions, the area and their own safety. Another example would be building signs, such as exits and toilets, such categories usually depicted through symbolic graphics and colours, e.g. exit signs are usually a bright green, toilet signs are often distinguished between a male, female and wheelchair icon.

Graphs
Graphs are used as visual representation of a common collection of data, proving more effective for an audience’s understanding then simply providing them with a dense paragraph of complicated numbers and information. In a design sense, a graph can be as simplistic as sectioned off into colours with simple shapes, or become more creative as a symbol of what it is representing, for example, a tobacco company may provide their annual report graphs as bar graphs, with each bar instead a cigarette.