Visual Function: An Introduction to Information Design

By Paul Mijksenaar

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 156898118X
• ISBN13: 9781568981185
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Length: 56 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.8" x 8.3"
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

A manifesto and a paradox, sort of.

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.