Toward a definition of information design

The recent emergence of information design as an academic discipline has presented a challenge with respect to how it is defined in the academy and by practitioners. Learning about information design begins with understanding how it is defined. This paper provides an analysis of the definition of information design. Using a method based on content analysis, existing definitions proposed by renowned authors and information design practitioners were synthesized into a single complete definition. The process involved identification of definitions used by key organizations and acknowledged leaders in the information design community according to the context and position of each author. The overall analysis of each definition involved a systematic critique process. This consisted of a detailed content analysis of the main words used in each definition and an analysis of the corresponding sentence construction used for each definition. Using synonymous word groups, and based on the analysis (and structure) of the source materials, a new definition of information design was proposed. It is suggested that this approach may be applied to any area or concept not having a clear definition.