Successful web design teams depend on clear communication between developers and their clients—and among members of the development team. Wireframes, site maps, flow charts, and other design diagrams establish a common language so designers and project teams can capture ideas, track progress, and keep their stakeholders informed. In this all new edition of Communicating Design, author and information architect Dan Brown defines and describes each deliverable, then offers practical advice for creating the documents and using them in the context of teamwork and presentations, independent of methodology. Whatever processes, tools, or approaches you use, this book will help you improve the creation and presentation of your wireframes, site maps, flow charts, and other deliverables. The book now features: An improved structure comprising two main sections: Design Diagrams and Design Deliverables. The first focuses on the nuts and bolts of design documentation and the second explains how to pull it all together. New deliverable: design briefs, as well as updated advice on wireframes, flow charts, and concept models. More illustrations, to help designers understand the subtle variations and approaches to creating design diagrams. Reader exercises, for those lonely nights when all you really want to do is practice creating wireframes, or for use in workshops and classes. Contributions from industry leaders: Tamara Adlin, Stephen Anderson, Dana Chisnell, Nathan Curtis, Chris Fahey, James Melzer, Steve Mulder, Donna Spencer, and Russ Unger. “As an educator, I have looked to Communicating Design both as a formal textbook and an informal guide for its design systems that ultimately make our ideas possible and the complex clear.” —Liz Danzico, from the Foreword

Annotation Every designer has had to justify designs to non-designers, yet most lack the ability to explain themselves in a way that is compelling and fosters agreement. The ability to effectively articulate design decisions is critical to the success of a project, because the most articulate person often wins. This practical book provides principles, tactics and actionable methods for talking about designs with executives, managers, developers, marketers and other stakeholders who have influence over the project with the goal of winning them over and creating the best user experience.

Real critique has become a lost skill among collaborative teams today. Critique is intended to help teams strengthen their designs, products, and services, rather than be used to assert authority or push agendas under the guise of "feedback." In this practical guide, authors Adam Connor and Aaron Irizarry teach you techniques, tools, and a framework for helping members of your design team give and receive critique. Using firsthand stories and lessons from prominent figures in the design community, this book examines the good, the bad, and the ugly of feedback. You’ll come away with tips, actionable insights, activities, and a cheat sheet for practicing critique as a part of your collaborative process. This book covers: Best practices (and anti-patterns) for giving and receiving critique Cultural aspects that influence your ability to critique constructively When, how much, and how often to use critique in the creative process Facilitation techniques for making critiques timely and more effective Strategies for dealing with difficult people and challenging situations

White Space Is Not Your Enemy is a practical graphic design and layout guide that introduces concepts and practices necessary for producing effective visual communication across a variety of formats—from web to print. Sections on Gestalt theory, color theory, and WET layout are expanded to offer more in-depth content on those topics. This new edition features new covering current trends in web design—Mobile-first, UI/UX design, and web typography—and how they affect a designer’s approach to a project. The entire book will receive an update using new examples and images that show a more diverse set of graphics that go beyond print and web and focus on tablet, mobile and advertising designs.

Communicating User Experience: Applying Local Strategies Researchto Digital Media Design examines how Local Strategies Research (LSR) helps investigate user experiences with digital media. This edited collection uses case studies to examine the way we communicate in the digital age whether between individuals and digital interfaces (such those installed in cars), dyads via mobile phones and online interfaces, or members of a group through a video conference. Milburn and her contributors consider the cultural norms that both inform and are used during interaction to provide a useful methodology that shifts design (particularly HCI) research from a focus on emotional, subjective user experiences to the everyday practices involved in interacting with one another in and through digital devices and interfaces. Communicating User Experience will be a valuable resource for designers and scholars of communication and new media.

Communicating Knowledge Visually presents a timely, in-depth examination of information design pioneer, Will Burtin. Using a methodical approach, the authors analyze Burtin's way of working and nine of his seminal projects, including his exhibitions for The Upjohn Company and diagrams for SCOPE magazine.Excerpts taken from Burtin's unpublished writing offer insight into his thinking process and explain how he transformed complex scientific information into easy, accessible visual forms. Scientists, designers, educators and students will gain valuable knowledge from Burtin's unique design approach in meeting the current challenges of communicating complexity in their respective fields.

This book focuses on the various vectors of visual communication, particularly on contemporary brands as social phenomena, culture and the way people communicate and create meanings, from a designerâ (TM)s perspective. It brings together contributors experienced in the creation and management of international brands. It relates knowledge acquired by the professional design practice with that provided by the research process, and gives an unusually holistic and humanistic view of brands and brand marks, illustrated with concrete examples. The brand is viewed from the perspectives of communication, design, symbolic, culture, aesthetics, visual perception and brand management. Each chapter is inscribed in a sequential logic to explain the relations between visual communication, design and the brand, considered as a social, cultural and symbolic phenomenon, particularly in contexts where it impacts on peopleâ (TM)s lives.