IDblog ... an information design weblog

June 02, 2004
Karen Schriver on document design

Karen Schriver was across the pond recently, where she presented a session on at the STIC symposium in the Netherlands. I'd love a more annotated PowerPoint, but I found some of the slides interesting nonetheless...it's worth the ~1Mb download to review her trends and implications. One slide that caught my eye was her trends in professional development, which she mapped as follows:

  • Technical writer; focus: words
  • Technical communicator; focus: whole text (e.g., books)
  • Document designer; focus: visual-verbal integration (e.g., spreads)
  • Information designer/info architect; focus: visual-verbal structure (e.g., site map)

Those of you who hate the what's in a name kind of discussions may not be interested, but I certainly appreciate the effort. I'd love to quibble with Karen over the doc design/info design/info architecture borders, but hey, I love to quibble :).

Thanks to InfoDesign for the pointer.

Comments
Post a comment
Note: Your comment will be reviewed prior to posting to minimize comment spam. Management regrets the inconvenience!


IDblog is Beth Mazur tilting at power law windmills. A little bit Internet, a little bit technology, a little bit society, and a lot about designing useful information products. Send your cards and letters to .

search this site
archives
categories
key links
groups
about moi
feeds
amphetadesk
rdf
xml
gratuitous right-nav promos


(pdf)




Creative Commons License; click for details

Powered by Movable Type