Standards Development
This proposed standard builds on the foundation for plain language in ISO 24495-1:2023 (Plain Language — Part 1: Governing Principles and Guidelines). Part 1 includes brief recommendations for using information design to clarify information and make it usable. This proposed Part expands on those recommendations to specify how information design supports clear communication in complex documents.
This proposal acknowledges that visual design, together with linguistic cues, plays a key role in helping users find and navigate a document’s structure and content. As a result, the document becomes easier to use and understand.
Supporting higher-level literacy skills
The PIACC* international Survey of Adult Skills recognizes a range of skill levels. While the lower levels (1-2) focus on the ability to understand simple sentences, the higher level skills (3-5) are about using information strategically and purposefully — searching for answers, making connections, comparing options, and getting an overview. Trying to do these things without graphic cues is a major challenge to working memory. Good document design allows people to read the design and the words, both to navigate a complex, structured document and understand its content.
Building on Part 1 of the standard
Part 1 of this standard is structured around a model of good practice. This calls for information to be Relevant, Findable, Understandable, and Usable.
Information is Relevant, Findable and Usable when readers can quickly identify headings and distinguish between content with differing statuses and roles (such as high-level summaries, core content, commentary, and notes). Additionally, the distinct appearance of each page (in a fixed-format document) gives them a landscape within which to navigate.
Information design also contributes to information being Understandable. Authors use punctuation to clarify the structure of text at the sentence and paragraph level, and typographic design can be seen as a form of macro-punctuation at the higher level of the document or website. Some concepts can often be better explained through typographic arrangements (such as question-answer pairs, tables or lists) or accompanying graphics.
This proposed Part of ISO 24495-1:2023 supports the preparation of documents that aim to communicate complex information, such as:
- Health information, including information about lifestyle, medicines and treatments.
- Emergency communications.
- Commercial documents such as proposals, reports, and contracts.
- Legal information, including consumer contracts, information about legal rights and responsibilities.
- Technical, academic and scientific publications.
- Educational and training documents.
- Information for citizens about taxes, benefits, regulations, and the like.
- Customer communications, including letters, bills, contracts, and product information.
- Financial information, about banking, mortgages, pensions, insurance, and investments.
- User guides and manuals for products.
Aims The Part:
- builds on ISO/DIS 24495-1:2023 to give fuller guidance on its recommendations about information design principles.
- moves the perception of information design from a simple aesthetic, intuitive or creative choice to one more like information engineering, where decisions are based on evidence and documented techniques.
- helps authors build graphic structures into their drafts, and use graphic cues alongside linguistic ones to signal the structure of their content.
* OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). OECD (n.d.) Key Facts about the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC)
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