Table Of ContentMessage Design
Rune Pettersson
Message Design
The illustration on the cover is part of an image from my video
program “Life Patterns” presented at the first international ex-
hibition “The Video Show” in London, may 1975. My “multime-
dia project” was one of two invited contributions from Sweden.
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this
work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee pro-
vided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or com-
mercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full
citation on the first page.
Institute for Infology
ISBN 978-91-85334-26-1
© Rune Pettersson
Sweden, Tullinge 2022
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Preface
Information design is a multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary,
and worldwide consideration with influences from areas such as
design disciplines, communication disciplines, information dis-
ciplines, language disciplines, cognitive disciplines, art and aes-
thetic disciplines, business and law, as well as media production
technologies.
Message design is an interdisciplinary field of knowledge. It
encompasses influences and facts from more than fifty estab-
lished disciplines and areas of research. The main areas of re-
search may be divided into six groups with “base disciplines”
such as design disciplines, communication disciplines, infor-
mation disciplines, language disciplines, cognitive disciplines,
and art and aesthetic disciplines. The main components in mes-
sage design are words, visuals and forms. These main compo-
nents may be used in many different ways to produce, transmit
and interpret messages of various kinds in different communica-
tion situations. Depending on the different objectives of the mes-
sages we can see different “message design genera.” These
groups are graphic design, information design, instruction de-
sign, mass design, and persuasion design. Message design prin-
ciples contribute to the design of effective and efficient messages.
Since my retirement I have edited and revised sections of my
earlier books, conference papers and reports about information
design, message design, visual communication and visual liter-
acy. Previous editions of this book were published in 2011, 2012,
2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Tullinge, Sweden
Rune Pettersson, Ph.D.
Retired Professor of Information Design
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Contents
Preface 3
Contents 4
Communication 8
Many areas of research 8
Communication processes 9
Visual communication 10
Information 12
Design 14
Design families and design genera 17
Design processes and principles 19
General design principles 20
Design judgments 21
Design mottos 23
Quantitative information principles 24
Visual language principles 25
A few design areas 26
Emotional design 26
Industrial design 27
Information experience design 28
Interaction design 29
Interactive design 30
Light design 32
Packaging design 34
Participatory design 35
Sound design 37
Spatial design 39
User experience design 40
The message design family 43
Inter- and multi-disciplinary 44
Message design objectives 46
Graphic design 48
Graphic design objectives 49
Design by reduction 50
Modern graphic design 51
Information design 54
Some definitions 54
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Information design objectives 56
Instruction design 58
Instruction design objectives 59
Audio-visual instruction 59
Educational technology 61
Instructional technology 67
Instructional design 69
Educational design 76
Instructional message design 78
Information visualisation 80
Instruction design summary 80
Mass design 81
Persuasion design 82
Advertising 83
Propaganda 89
Message design processes 95
Message design model 96
Analysis and synopsis 96
Production of draft 99
Production of script 100
Production of original and master 101
Competence areas 102
Message design principles 105
Selected research 106
Information design principles 106
Instructional design principles 107
Interactive design principles 108
Functional message design principles 109
Functional principles 112
Defining the problems 112
Providing clarity 115
Providing emphasis 115
Providing simplicity 116
Providing structure 116
Providing unity 117
Cognitive principles 118
Facilitating attention 118
Facilitating perception 118
Facilitating mental processing 119
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Facilitating memory 119
Aesthetic principles 120
Aesthetic proportion principle 120
Harmony principle 120
Administrative principles 121
Information access 121
Information costs 124
Information ethics 127
Securing quality 129
Message design tools 135
Selected research 136
Verbal languages 137
Visual languages 137
Combined verbal and visual language 139
Symbols as language 140
Representing reality 141
Traditional media 141
More possibilities 142
Social media 143
Representations 146
Categories of representations 147
Internal and external representations 147
Information messages 148
Symbols and abstractness 149
Lexi-visual representations 152
AV and combined representations 159
Objectives 163
Stringent demands 163
Informative entertainment 164
Brief messages 165
Administrative documentation 167
Factual information 169
Instructions 173
Production of representations 176
Production processes 176
Graphical media 178
Video 179
Databases and multimedia 180
Podcasting 181
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Media-industry mappings 183
Efficiency measures 183
Media evolution chart 185
The receivers 188
Receiver processes 188
Finding information 191
Finding specific information 191
The information cone 193
Information navigation 195
Navigation in hyperspace 203
Media consumption 204
Media consumption vary 205
Specialized market segments 205
Media developments 208
Research and study 210
Research methods 210
Applied research 210
A research process 214
Other research methods 215
Creating a leverage effect 217
Study perspectives 219
ID Library 221
References 222
Appendix: Main concepts 251
7
Communication
Aspects of our society are becoming increasingly intertwined,
and the need for communication between people is increasing.
We need to communicate in order to establish contacts with one
another, to maintain and improve those contacts, to exchange in-
formation and views, and to develop our societies. This chapter
includes the following main sections: Many areas of research,
Communication processes, and Visual communication.
Many areas of research
Cuttings in bone, impressions in clay, incisions in stone, notches
in wood, paintings in caves, and paintings on walls are all exam-
ples of visual cultural artefacts created in early human commu-
nities. They all represent thoughts. People express their thoughts
for many reasons, often several simultaneous reasons (Tversky,
2011). Some reasons are aesthetic: to arouse emotions, or evoke
pleasure. Some reasons are behavioural and affect action, or pro-
mote collaboration. Some reasons are cognitive and serve as re-
minders, to focus thoughts, to reorganize thoughts, and to ex-
plore thoughts. Many reasons are communicative and inform
both self, and others.
Communication is studied in many academic disciplines,
and in many areas of research. Main areas include advertising,
audience reception, audio-visual instruction, communication de-
sign, communication models, communication theories, com-
puter science, cultivation, cultural studies, educational technol-
ogy, entertainment, gender studies, gratifications theory, hu-
man-computer interaction, mass-communication, media and
communication, media literacy, mediated communication, me-
dium, one-way communications model, persuasive communica-
tion, planned communication, propaganda, technical communi-
cation, technical illustration, technical writing, technology of in-
struction, and many more.
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At different universities, courses and complete academic
programs in communication studies have many names, such as
communication and media science, communication arts, com-
munication sciences, communication studies, mass communica-
tion, media ecology, media studies, rhetorical studies, and
speech communication. Programs may include elements of many
disciplines. A few main communication disciplines will be men-
tioned briefly here. Advertising, audio-visual instruction, com-
munication design, cultural studies, culture theories, educational
technology, gender studies, human-computer interaction, in-
structional technology, and media literacy theories are men-
tioned later in this book.
Communication processes
Many communication and information theorists have devised
models to explain the way communication processes function
(De Boer and Brennecke, 2003; Hagen, 1998; Hall, 1980; Lass-
well, 1948; McGonigle and Mastrian, 2011; McQuail, 2000;
Mesoudi, 2011; Morley, 1992; Piette and Giroux, 1998; Schramm,
1954; Shannon and Weaver, 1949; Wartella and Reeves, 2003;
Wurman et al., 2001). Many communication models have both
advantages and disadvantages.
In the production of information materials, a sender conveys
information on a part of reality via a representation to an infor-
mation receiver who, via sensory impressions, is able to obtain a
perception of that reality. This perception may then evoke a re-
sponse that affects the reality and/or creates some feedback to
the original sender. The receiver’s perception varies as a result of
a number of factors, e.g., her or his current cultural and social
status, the time and stage of development, mood, experience,
memory, and other cognitive processes, such as creativity. Per-
ception is divorced from the representation that, in turn, is di-
vorced from the reality. Some of our sensory impressions give
rise to “garbage” and some to learning.
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Several activities are involved when an intended message (left
red circle) is created, produced, and transmitted, from a sender
to a receiver, and received, processed and understood (right red
circle). These processes (blue arrows) are guided by principles
(upper yellow pentagons), performed with the help of tools
(lower dark green pentagons) and influenced by social context.
In this model the active receiver may actively reach out and
grab the representation with message/medium.
Visual communication
The study of visual communication has developed inde-
pendently within several fields of research. Thus, research on
combined verbal and visual communication has had “no natural
home.” Nowadays the study of visual communication is a multi-
disciplinary, multi-dimensional and worldwide consideration.
Müller, Kappas and Olk (2012, p. 322) noted that while pictures
move easily between various media, their meaning does not al-
ways follow the same path.
Moriarty (1996) made an extensive mapping of the study of
visual communication. She developed a bibliography with 1,617
entries grouped in the following 30 main categories (in order of
precedence): 1) Memory, 2) Photography, 3) Mental imagery, 4)
Cognition and information processing, 5) Visual-verbal interac-
tion, 6) Advertising, 7) Television and video, 8) Art and fine art,
9) Perception, 10) Development and children, 11) Film and cin-
ema, 12) History, 13) Visual literacy; pictorial representation, 14)
Graphic design, 15) Aesthetics; creativity; gender studies and
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