Posted by Peter Blaiwas on Mon, Jun 14, 2010
A great many designers I know have overcome reading disabilities, as I have. Since I was compensating for an eye-tracking problem that went undiagnosed until well into my adult years, reading was a literal strain, which precluded any chance I had of "relaxing with a book." As a result, reading never became integrated as a consistent activity into my life. I've always pushed myself to keep at it and inevitably, when I reach the end of a really good book, I wonder why I don't do more of this.
I expect this is the reason I have always loved illustrated books—children's books, coffee table books, graphic novels—and have spent most of my career designing them. Illustrations give me a break from reading while offering a way to process information in a more immediate fashion. It's also why I consider information graphics (charts, graphs, tables, etc.) to be illustrative. Once finished with my "break," I can return to my place in the text more relaxed and better informed than when I left.
Conversely, these very difficult blogging exercises (a.k.a. expository writing) require me to reason, then write sentences that expand on the previous ones as well as clearly pave the way for those that will be subsequent. I once thought that this was a very modest ambition, but that was before I started writing blogs and especially after I started reading other people's.
Codgers like me often fret that this online world is going to shorten our collective attention span to zero. But, maybe we are in the midst of a fundamental shift in the way people approach and absorb information. I don't know what's going to happen, but I doubt it will turn us all into neanderthals.
To me, a more legitimate concern is the ubiquitous notion that equates content with volume: that is, unconnected, interchangeable pieces meant to fill space rather than inform. The disturbing implication is that content is intended to be ignored rather than understood. Its sole reason for being is to spur one to keep clicking and moving and clicking some more. It is already far too easy to do that online, so what is the advantage to making that one's goal?