Why? What? How? Three questions people coming to you want answered. But more than that they are three questions you can answer about your users. Whyare they there? What will they do? How will they do it?
Ford knew that people wanted to get to places faster, but a faster horse wasn’t an option. Thankfully cars are a better technology than horses and offered something to people they didn’t know they wanted. In principle information design is much like the history of car design. Cars offer people a technology to help them achieve what they want to achieve, developing technology online, understanding what people want from technology – those are the secrets to a good online presence.
Whatever the problem — mapping the way people use information and working with them to uncover the best patters for you is a serious goal worth accomplishing.
Doing that in the most elegant way possible, that’s what I do. Do you want to be a thought leader? Do you want to be a trusted source? Are you seeking loyalty from customers? Each of these questions can be answered “yes” with information design.