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David Sless’s journey to information designer coincides with the history of IDJ. David’s first paper was published in the second issue (1979). David’s journey alongside IDJ included the generosity of Peter Simlinger of IIID (1980s) and the encouragement of Paul Stiff of Reading University (1990s). IDJ is still a vital part of David’s life.

This paper was originally given as a keynote presentation to the IIID Vision Plus 12 Conference held in Schwarzenberg, Vorarlberg, Austria in 2007. Presentations are not papers and in some respects they do not translate one into the other. I have edited it for this Journal as a stand-alone piece; at least that is my hope.

This paper discusses the management and execution of an information design project, undertaken in Australia, for a large insurance company. The project provided the opportunity to use well developed principles of information design, project planning and management, and methods for dealing with organisational politics - a ubiquitous feature of all information design. The paper gives an account of a technique for measuring errors and their cost, practical iterative testing methods, and user consultation processes which can be applied to design decision making. The results of the project, particularlythe significant reduction in errors and processing costs, illustrates the importance of the human interface in improving productivity, and the dangers of thinking about information system design simply in terms of hardware and software.

(1989). The Rules Are No Game: The Strategy of Communication by Anthony Wilden (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London and New York, 1987) pp. xv + 432, ISBN 0-7100-9868-5. Prometheus: Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 406-411.

This paper reports an experimental pedagogic investigation of design behaviour. The subjects were design students and they were required to modify an image on the basis of feedback from a target audience. Results showed a consistent improvement in performance of the image with successive modifications. The study also shows a progressive build-up of resistance on the part of subjects to further modifications of the image. The implications for design education and practice are discussed.

This paper presents a general and non-technical overview of semiotics and its recent history. The importance of Peirce and Saussure as founding fathers of contemporary semiotics is discussed and the debate they precipitated is mapped out including some of the peculiar characteristics of semiotics as a field of study. Some advice is given on how to read semiotic research, emphasising its contribution as an art rather than as a science. Some emphasis is placed on the specific contribution of semiotics to our understanding of the political nature of all communication.

This paper explores the concept of an infrastructure of human understanding and a new approach to communication research using a logic of positions. Communication is not, as is sometimes supposed, an instrument for conveying information from one point to another nor are the forms, languages, or capacity for understanding uniformly distributed throughout society. The infrastructure of understanding is an extraordinarily complex phenomenon which cannot be explored with traditional methods. Before taking investigations further in this new area it is necessary to redefine the nature of knowledge.

This article is a reaction to the article by Cassidy and Knowlton, “Visual Literacy: A Failed Metaphor,” that appeared in theECTJ, Summer 1983.

(1985). Grammatical Man — Information, Entropy, Language and Life by Jeremy Campbell (Penguin, Ringwood, Vic., 1984) pp. 319, $10.95(pb), ISBN 0 14022504 8. Prometheus: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 186-188.

According to research, the media play a minor role in shaping the public agenda of important social and political issues. This has not prevented media critics from making exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims about the role of the media in setting the public agenda and has led to the neglect of some important political questions.

Sless' main concern is the validity of the agenda-setting metaphor, and the methodologies used in agenda-setting studies. He suggests 'the response [to his article]...are perfect demonstrations of how questions posed for debate by one person are taken as different questions in other debates by other people'.