good information design tells a compelling story—
one that is more than predictable

Information is data with meaning. Information is what happens when carefully conceived and well managed methods of presentation make sense of raw materials. Information is the outcome of an integrated design process whereby a project's purposes are made clear and data is carried across in coherent combinations. Information is derived from study, hard work, and experience. Information is helpful. Information is an environment where people feel at home. Information design results from organizing, shaping, editing, analyzing, critiquing, and reshaping data. Information design instructs. To design information is to convey something meaningful.

above: This is a navigational map, or Rebbelib, used by the people of the Marshall Islands (19th Century). Though they clearly indicate the positions of islands and atolls, these stick charts as they are sometimes called, also record ephemeral features of the sea. Polynesian navigation was largely based on the detection and interpretation of the patterns of ocean swells. Much as a stone thrown into a pond produces ripples, islands alter the course of the waves that strike them, creating characteristic swell patterns that can be detected and used to guide a vessel to land. It is the presence and intersection of swells and currents therefore, that are primarily indicated on these charts. As visualized information, stick charts were essentially aids to memory to be studied while on land. The significance of each chart was understood by the maker/navigator who left it behind, only to use recall and his touch to steer by.