Even with the influx of digital communication devices, people still rely on old fashioned, printed materials to get through their daily life. Poor information design can frustrate and disappoint a user, and often has a larger impact on their lives - people may miss meetings, appointments or important events if they misjudge or misread a schedule or map. Information designers need to understand and balance complicated data along with visual design principles to produce legible, comprehensible instruction materials.

Each year, every working adult in the United States must file their taxes, and while a number of people utilize online services for this task, millions of people still rely on the printed forms available from the Internal Revenue Service. Using an iterative design process, redesign the 1040 United States Individual Income Tax Return form. The goal is to present the information to the user in a manner that is easy to use, easy to understand, and - if possible - pleasing to fill out.

 

Shown: Tax Form Redesign, by Jordan Clayton-Hall