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Writing and research

New article Local Independent Bookshop Fox Books in Leicester, United Kingdom, and the Future of Physical Bookshops…

We have researched and written the article Local Independent Bookshop Fox Books in Leicester, United Kingdom, and the Future of Physical Bookshops… that highlights the current environment in 2023 and changing times in the retail sector after Covid‑19, and what they might need to do to butter the bread. We hope it is of some use. March 2023.

Blue square background, with a large circle in the middle, then a cartoon fox reading a book, holding it in 1 hand

Medium.com logo, shows a thick serif font and says 'Medium' in black

Photograph of the front of the Fox Books bookshop, shows a blue front, with door and windows either side. Red and orange bricks on either side, then a grey roof above. Pavement in front, with a wooden foldable sign
Writing and research

New article Useful Accessibility and Usability Examples To Help Improve Your Designs

We were asked by the Smashing Magazine team to write another article and produced Useful Accessibility and Usability Examples To Help Improve Your Designs to help designers make their designs more accessible and usable, and to envisage and come-up with new ideas in the areas of accessibility and usability. The easily over-looked area of access structures is discussed, that seems to have been most notably mentioned wayback in 1979 by the information designer Rob Waller, although they rarely get mentioned in current times. The article is for designers on their lunch break and we worked on the tone of the writing more than usual to make it upbeat, lively and increase readers motivation. We have previously explored and discussed tone in writing, in our interview An Interview With Anne-Marie Chisnall From Write on Plain English and Information Design, and as people say tone is a funny thing. Thanks again to Iris Lješnjanin and Yana Kirilenko. December 2022.

Illustration of webpage showing many boxes and options to close and set, showing a very demanding 1st user visit Smashing Magazine logo, a red rectangle box, on the left in a small white diaginal box is a white letter 's', then to the right on the 1st line is 'Smashing Magazine' and below that 'Magazine' both in white capital letters
Writing and research

Measuring the Performance of Typefaces for Users paper

Often people and designers who use and select typefaces, do so using their personal preference and do not see or forget the larger system. What objectivity can we hope to gain from testing typefaces? The difficult and complex area of testing typefaces, in our paper Measuring the Performance of Typefaces for Users (Part 1) and Measuring the Performance of Typefaces for Users (Part 2) but ‘I think we are there’.

The paper was wrote in about 3 days (quick to write) although Alma Hoffmann (Smashing Magazine editor) pushed us much more, and the paper went through 3 rewrites and 3 reedits (slow to publish) but certainly benefited. Thanks again to Alma Hoffmann and Natalia Lassance.

‘Well, whatever your thoughts are, in 2022, with a mass of typefaces available and 100s of years of designing and manufacturing typefaces, it is time to consider this topic. I think the time has come, and we are there’.

We hope you find the paper useful. Some editorial style errors remain, but we tried our best with them. June 2022.

Illustration showing a row of large lowercase letter a’s in the many different versions of the Garamond typeface, then the name of each version in a diagonal red line below Smashing Magazine logo, a red rectangle box, on the left in a small white diaginal box is a white letter 's', then to the right on the 1st line is 'Smashing Magazine' and below that 'Magazine' both in white capital letters
Writing and research

Interview with Joanna Suau in the Information Design Journal, 26(2), 2021

The rise of APIs… We are delighted to announce An Interview With Joanna Suau From Infobip on the Design of Application Programming Interface (API) Documentation in the Information Design Journal, 26(2), 2021. March 2022.

Journal cover of Information Design Journal 26.2, 2021 shows a white cover side-on, with a yellow gridded graphic with green pie charts above, and the text 'idj' in large white bold letters at the top
Writing and research

Interview with Paul Jerome in the Information Design Journal, 26(1), 2021

We are delighted to announce that our interview An Interview With Paul Jerome From Kent County Council on Easy Read has been published in the Information Design Journal, 26(1), 2021.

Easy read is essentially information designed for people with learning difficulties, that is typically made larger in size and more blatant than typical information is, as well as making the text content easy‑to‑understand. Thanks to Paul, Patricia and Francisco. August 2021.

Journal cover of Information Design Journal 26.1, 2021 shows a white cover side-on, with a colour photograph of a health card, and the text 'idj' in large white bold letters at the top
Writing and research

Interview with Chris Hackley on advertising and marketing

We have done a new self-initiated interview called an Interview With Professor Chris Hackley (Professor of Marketing, Royal Holloway, University of London) on the Past, Present and Future of Advertising and Marketing that is on our Medium, enjoy. November 2020.

Street photograph of a man walking along the pavement in a city, just before the new kiosk A1 InLink advertising units Medium.com logo, shows a thick serif font and says 'Medium' in black
Writing and research

2 interviews for the Information Design Journal, 25(2), 2019

We are delighted to announce that we have done 2 interviews for the Information Design Journal, 25(2), 2019.

The 1st interview is An Interview With Barbra Kingsley From Kleimann Communication Group on Information Design on all things information design and financial statement design.

The 2nd interview is An Interview With Anne-Marie Chisnall From Write on Plain English and Information Design on all things clear writing. Thanks again to Carla, Barbra and Anne-Marie. August 2020.

Journal cover of Information Design Journal 25.2, 2019 shows a white cover side-on, with a technical diagram on the front, and the text 'idj' in large white bold letters at the top
Writing and research

The Best Dutch Book Designs 2017 book review

We have reviewed the interesting The Best Dutch Book Designs 2017 yearly printed annual on our Medium. For more information about the competition visit The Best Dutch Book Designs Competition website. August 2020.

The book is photographed diagonally side-on. The cover is lime green with the title in large black text, with cut-away tabs on the outer edge. Medium.com logo, shows a thick serif font and says 'Medium' in black
Writing and research

Micro-Typography: How to Space and Kern Punctuation Marks and Other Symbols paper

We have researched and written a paper called Micro‑Typography: How to Space and Kern Punctuation Marks and Other Symbols for Smashing Magazine. The paper expands on the issue within micro‑typography, and is a gathering of ideas and issues from past years. It is slightly technical and is of interest to typographers, typesetters, typeface designers, font engineers and software developers. There is also a live real-time micro‑typography example (see Figure 5 within the paper), so you can see exactly what the micro‑typographic spacing of punctuation marks and other associated symbols actually is. Thanks to Rachel, Iris, Erik, Roland and Jost. May 2020.

The word 'Typography' repeated in 4 columns, with various punctuation marks and symbols showing the effect of spaced and not spaced marks Smashing Magazine logo, a red rectangle box, on the left in a small white diaginal box is a white letter 's', then to the right on the 1st line is 'Smashing Magazine' and below that 'Magazine' both in white capital letters
Writing and research

Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters by Harold Evans

We cannot afford to separate text content and graphic content, and information design makes no distinction between the 2, they are both main elements of communication, although designers often do not edit text, and writers often do not understand the complex area of graphic communication design.

We have reviewed Harold Evan’s book Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters on UXmatters. What do people mean by clear writing, what exactly is clear, what can we do to make our writing work for as many people as possible, what does best practice advise? All these questions are raised and explored in the book review. (Please note this book review was heavily copyedited and reworded by the editor.) Thanks to Pabini. March 2020.

White cover, with the words ‘Do I Make Myself Clear?’ in large gold letters on 4 lines. Then a fountain pen, drawing a black line below, the ‘Harold Evans’ in capital black text UXmatters logo, on the left a purple circle with 'UX' in white capital letters in the middle, then to the right 'matters' in bold purple lowercase leters
Writing and research

2 interviews for the Information Design Journal, 24(3), 2018

We are delighted to announce that we have done 2 interviews for the Information Design Journal, 24(3), 2018.

The 1st interview is User Experience Research and SoundCloud in Berlin: An Interview With Brian Snead, Senior User Experience Researcher at SoundCloud.

The 2nd interview is A Discussion on the Past, Present and Future of Paper: An Interview With Renée Yardley and Robert Mannix. October 2019.

Journal cover of Information Design Journal 24.3, 2018 shows a white cover side-on, with a technical illustrations on the front, and the text 'idj' in large white bold letters at the top
Writing and research

AccessAbility 2: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design work showcase

Our work and research is on page 25 of AccessAbility 2: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design produced by RGD (Association of Registered Graphic Designers) in partnership with the Government of Ontario (Canada). This guide is a good starter into good practice graphic communication design, accessibility and usability. Thanks to all the team at RGD. May 2019.

Front cover of the guide in bright yellow with the title in large black capital letters RGD logo, shows the letters 'RGD' on red background with white text, and then to the right the black Ontario logo with a triangle icon to the right
Writing and research

Updates to our Letter and Symbol Misrecognition [...] paper on the Typography.Guru website

Our paper Letter and Symbol Misrecognition in Highly Legible Typefaces for General, Children, Dyslexic, Visually Impaired and Ageing Readers [2019 4th Edition] has been updated with new information and editorially corrected. Thanks again to Ralf. May 2019.

A car number plate, Letter and symbol misrecognition in highly legible typefaces for general, children, dyslexic, visually impaired and ageing readers Typography.Guru logo, on the left shows a large red raised capital 'G' letter, then on the right in light grey the text 'Typography.Guru'
Writing and research

Typographic Style Handbook book review

We have done an extensive book review of the Typographic Style Handbook by Michael Mitchell and Susan Wightman in the Information Design Journal, 24(2), 2018. April 2019.

Journal cover of Information Design Journal 24:2, 2018 shows a white cover side-on, with a technical step-by-step bright orange diagrams on the front, and the text 'idj' in large white bold letters at the top

Writing and research

No More New Similar Typefaces for Extended Reading, Please! paper

For a 2nd time we have partnered with Ralf Herrmann from the Typography.Guru website, to publish our paper No More New Similar Typefaces for Extended Reading, Please! This paper seeks to briefly explore the issues of typeface design similarity and usefulness, in contemporary typeface design and development. November 2018.

An illustration of the world showing various multi-script characters and diverse symbols Typography.Guru logo, on the left shows a large red raised capital 'G' letter, then on the right in light grey the text 'Typography.Guru'
Writing and research

New chapter in Citizen Designer (2nd Edition) book

We have written a chapter titled Accessibility and Usability in Communication Design on pages 140–157 in a new book title Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility (2nd Edition) by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne. The chapter involved quite a bit of work and includes 46 references. We read the book all the way through and what would we say about it?:

‘The most amazing book, the content is relevant, thought‑provoking and insightful. Almost every page raises many valid points. It is really a treasure trove of issues. This book is a great read for every graphic communication designer. Find out about your responsibilities as a graphic communication designer’.

Buy the book direct from Skyhorse Publishing/Allworth Press website. Many thanks to Steven. August 2018.

Book cover image of the book: Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility (Second Edition), shows a pink and light blue thick paint brush swipe, with 'Citizen Designer in a medium size white text, at the top left' On the left, the letters ‘S P’ overlapping each other on a green rectangle, then the words ‘Skyhorse Publishing’ split on the 2 lines, in large dark grey capital text
Writing and research

What Do Graphic Communication Designers Do? [...] paper

We have published a paper called What Do Graphic Communication Designers Do? Some Thoughts and a List of Disciplines and Specialisms on our Medium, to show what graphic designers do, the areas they have to know about, and also for people choosing a career in this field. February 2018.

Man and woman looking through a long telescope into the sky Medium.com logo, shows a thick serif font and says 'Medium' in black
Writing and research

Information on Different Categories of People […] paper and infographic

(Note: this paper was originally published on the Usability Geek website in February 2018. In May 2020, we moved it to our Medium so we can update it more easily.)

Our paper Information on Different Categories of People for Graphic Communication, Website and Information Designers Including Free Reusable Infographic has been published on the Usability Geek website. This is the 2nd time we have collaborated with Usability Geek. There is also a freely reusable and copyright free infographic at the end of the paper that accompanies the paper. You can download the infographic as a PDF (good for printing), PNG (good for email), or HTML (online webpage). Thanks again to Justin.

Susan Weinschenk (PhD in psychology) and CEO at The Team W showcased this paper in her April 2018 email newsletter. And in 2015 we reviewed her book 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People in the Information Design Journal 21(1), 2014.

The A11Y Project that provide a great accessibility checklist for website designers, have linked to the paper and infographic on their Resources section.

The Public Library Accessibility Resource Centre (PLARC) and its website Accessible Libraries, is a collaborative project between the National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS) and the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) in Canada, they have linked to our paper on their website. February 2018.

Blue duotone coloured photograph of a crossing/sidewalk in America, with people walking left and right. The sun is shining bright in the background Usability Geek logo, shows the text 'Usability' on the left in capital black letters, then 'GEEK' in capital orange letters to the right, and the letters 'E' and 'E' in 'GEEK' have been made into a face sign The Team W logo, shows in a thin grey border box, the text 'THE TEAM' in capital black letters on the left, with a black circle on the right, with a white letter 'W' inside it The A11Y Project logo, shows a black circle on the left with a pictogram person with there arms and legs open, then the text 'A11Y Project' to the right in a thin black sans-serif font 5 triangles, from left to right, blue, red, green, red and yellow slightly overlapping themselves, then the words ‘Library Accessibility Resource Centre’ below in thin black lowercase text
Writing and research

10 Tips For Better Book Designs paper republished on UXPlanet.org

Our paper 10 Tips For Better Book Designs has been republished on the UXPlanet.org website. (This is the 4th time this paper has been requested to be republished.) Thanks to Nick. October 2017.

UX Planet logo, shows a red dot on the left with the text 'UX' within it, then the text 'UX Planet' on the right in a bold grey sans-serif font
Shows a cartoon woman, laying inside an open book, holding onto the end, flying over a drawing of the top of the world
Writing and research

Small Print In Graphic Communication and Information Design: A Discussion of Issues and Interactions paper

(Note: this paper was originally published on the Usability Geek website in January 2017. In April 2023, we moved it to our Medium so we can update it more easily.)

Our paper Small Print In Graphic Communication and Information Design: A Discussion of Issues and Interactions has been published on the Usability Geek website. Thanks to Justin. January 2017.

Photo of a magnifying glass over the top of a terms and conditions default A4 document Usability Geek logo, shows the text 'Usability' on the left in capital black letters, then 'GEEK' in capital orange letters to the right, and the letters 'E' and 'E' in 'GEEK' have been made into a face sign
Writing and research

Letter and Symbol Misrecognition […] paper updated on the Typography.Guru website, and interview with Steven Heller

Our paper Letter and Symbol Misrecognition in Highly Legible Typefaces for General, Children, Dyslexic, Visually Impaired and Ageing Readers [2016 2nd Edition] has been updated and republished on the Typography.Guru website, as a 2016 2nd edition. (Updates and corrections were done to the text, figures and references.)

Thanks once again to Ralf from Typography.Guru, and also Steven Heller the renowned graphic design writer, who interviewed us about the paper in his Daily Heller: Type for Impaired Eyes, Print Magazine, 24th October 2016.

A car number plate, Letter and symbol misrecognition in highly legible typefaces for general, children, dyslexic, visually impaired and ageing readers Typography.Guru logo, on the left shows a large red raised capital 'G' letter, then on the right in light grey the text 'Typography.Guru' Steven Heller logo, shows 'STEVEN' in black large capital letters on the 1st line, the 'HELLER' in large red capital letters on the line below, stacked on top of each other Print magazine logo
Writing and research

Snapshots III book

Our paper 10 Tips for Better Book Designs has been republished in a book called Snapshots III (ISBN: 978-1-909362-03-1) produced by Book Machine and Kingston University Press. It contains short papers from a range of people in the publishing industry. More information about the book can be found here. August 2016.

Image of Snapshots III book cover, shows an orange bar across the top of the cover, then a dark red/brown bar on the lower twothirds, with the text 'Publishing the next 5 years' with the letters and pictograms of books stacked on top of each other Book Machine logo, shows a large brown dark red circle with the words 'Book Machine' in large capital letters diagonally and the 2 letter ow's in book, are mechanical gear cogs
Writing and research

Letter and Symbol Misrecognition […] paper published on the Typography.Guru website

Our paper Letter and Symbol Misrecognition in Highly Legible Typefaces for General, Children, Dyslexic, Visually Impaired and Ageing Readers has been published on the Typography.Guru website. Thanks also to Design Week, ilovetypography.com, Smashing Magazine, The Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) and Typostrate for taking an interest in the paper. December 2015.

i love typography logo, shows a rectangle light green box with the text 'I Love Typography' in thin white letters Typostrate logo, shows a black rectangle box and in the bottom left, the text 'typostrate' in white sans serif letters, then an underscrore symbol underneath the letters 't' and 'y'
A car number plate, Letter and symbol misrecognition in highly legible typefaces for general, children, dyslexic, visually impaired and ageing readers Typography.Guru logo, on the left shows a large red raised capital 'G' letter, then on the right in light grey the text 'Typography.Guru' Smashing Magazine logo, a red rectangle box, on the left in a small white diaginal box is a white letter 's', then to the right on the 1st line is 'Smashing Magazine' and below that 'Magazine' both in white capital letters Design Week logo, shows the ord 'design' in large tightly letterspaced green letters, then the word 'week' vertically turned to the right of the letter 'n' in the word 'design' The Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) logo, shows the letters 'RGD' on red background with white text,
Writing and research

Letter and Symbol Misrecognition […] paper and book review in the Information Design Journal

Our paper Letter and Symbol Misrecognition in Highly Legible Typefaces for General, Children, Dyslexic, Visually Impaired and Ageing Readers has been published in the Information Design Journal, 21(1), 2014. We also reviewed Susan Weinschenk’s great book 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People at the end. June 2015.

Photo of the Information Design Journal, 20(1) 2014 shows a white cover side-on, with a technical oval triangle diagram on the front, and the text 'idj' in large white bold letters at the top
Writing and research

10 Tips for Better Book Designs paper

Our paper has been republished for a 3rd time in a near original form, on the Book Machine website. March 2015.

Book Machine logo, shows a large brown dark red circle with the words 'Book Machine' in large capital letters diagonally and the 2 letter ow's in book, are mechanical gear cogs
Writing and research

When Information Design is a Matter of Life or Death paper

Our double peer-reviewed paper When Information Design is a Matter of Life or Death has been published on the Boxes and Arrows website. November 2014.

Boxes and Arrows logo, shows a 3D box made out of arrows in orange thick lines, the 'boxes' on the 1st line, then 'and' on the 2nd line, then 'arrows' on the 3rd line
Writing and research

10 Tips for Better Book Designs paper

Our paper 10 Tips for Better Book Designs has been published on Creative Choices (website not online anymore), and in their email newsletter (issue 172, January 2014). January 2014.

Creative Choices logo, on the 1st line in a dark gree colour is the text 'creative', then below that is the text 'choices' in a lighter green text
Writing and research

10 Tips for Better Book Designs paper

Our paper 10 Tips for Better Book Designs has been published on the Creative Bloq website. (The paper was heavily edited by them and some content was not included.) October 2013.

Creative Bloq logo, shows the letters 'CB' in a orange speech bubble, then 'Creative Bloq' in large capital grey letters to the right
Writing and research

Hiut typographic magazine

A short version of our paper Letter and Symbol Misrecognition in Highly Legible Typefaces for General, Children, Dyslexic, Visually Impaired and Ageing Readers has been publishing in Korean, in the typographic magazine Hiut, 4(2), 2013.

Front cover of Hiut magazine, has a light brown background with a greyscale photo of a Korean man in a portrait oval shape
Writing and research

Letter and Symbol Misrecognition […] paper published in the international typographics magazines Baseline 61 and Slanted #18

Our paper Letter and Symbol Misrecognition in Highly Legible Typefaces for General, Children, Dyslexic, Visually Impaired and Ageing Readers has been published in Baseline 61 (2012), Kent, U.K. Launched in 1979, it is the authoritative magazine about type and typography.

The paper has also been published in the typographic magazine Slanted #18, Signage/Orientation from Karlsruhe, Germany.

The paper is essential reading for anyone interested in legibility, clear typographic design, typeface design and typographic accessibility. June 2012.

Photo of Baseline magazine, shows the title in white large text at the top with a purple, red and orange abstract square design Photo of Slanted magazine, shows a green background colour and a grey road junction icon with the title 'Slanted' in large yellow capital letters at the top
Writing and research

Paper published in the Information Design Journal

Our paper Getting Around the Reproduction Problems of Colored Graphs has been published in the international peer-reviewed Information Design Journal, 18(1), 2010. John Benjamins, Amsterdam. August 2010.

Photo of the Information Design Journal cover, shows a black pictogram of an offical service person in an airport
Writing and research

International collaborative project with the Communication Research Institute

We took part in an international collaborative communication research project called Credit Card Statements: Communication Benchmarks 2009, for the Communication Research Institute, Australia. View project report and findings (PDF). May 2009.

CRI benchmarks logo, a purple line cartoon person speaking through a loud-speaker Communication Research Institute logo, shows a large bright purple speech bubble with the letters 'CRI' in large bold white capital letters within it