Database Reference
In-Depth Information
4. Design for aesthetics
5. Choose an effective medium and channel
6. Check the results
Let's look at these principles in detail.
Principle #1: Know Your Goal
It's important to note that “information” and the “message” are not synonymous. Information
is the set of all possible messages that can be selected by the information source. The mes-
sage is what was selected from this set to be communicated. Why does this matter? In a
world where information is increasing exponentially, choosing your message is an important
first step.
Before you choose your message, however, it's critical to know your goal, which you can ar-
ticulate by answering a few key questions up front (see
Figure 1-4
):
▪ Who are you trying to communicate with? (target audience)
▪ What do you want them to know? (intended meaning)
▪ Why? What do you want them to do about it? (desired effect)
Figure 1-4. Elements of the goal
The answers to these questions may be very different for different disciplines. A data journ-
alist working on a breaking story doesn't have the same goal as a business intelligence ana-
