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Anthony Davey wondered: <<where, in practice, does the technical writer
stop and the information designer begin? Or do they overlap?>>
I don't know of anyone working exclusively as an "information
designer", though some people do make good livings as "information
architects", which is a narrower subset of information design. But if I
had to pick one phrase to describe what I do, "information design"
would probably be it because I do fairly eclectic work.
I personally define "information design" as the art and science of
figuring out how to bridge the gap between the person sending the
message and the person receiving it. The "information" part is the
message, shaped in such a way that it informs; the "design" part
involves shaping that message. Overall, this may involve editing,
identifying what the audience does and does not know, writing new
content where content is lacking, deciding that writing isn't the best
medium at all, and so on. Even when I focus on only one of those
activities (e.g., writing), I still do the whole process of determining
how to massage the message--sometimes more rigorously than others.
Pace Bruce Byfield, with whom I can be expected to disagree on about
50% of everything including the temperature <g>, I don't find the term
"information designer" at all pretentious--at least, no more so than
"technical writer". The value of a label is what it communicates, and
pretentious is a combination of the eye of the beholder and the
attitude of the person using the label. I don't oversell what I do or
call it anything mystical--but I am pretentious enough to believe that
I'm an expert at the job and that the job requires expertise.
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