Principles for creating good information representation

In this paper, I propose principles for good representation of information applicable to six categories of communication: speeches, written texts, presentations, Web pages, movies/videos, and source programs. For each of these categories, many tips have been proposed for creating good information representation. The meaning of good information representation can be interpreted in two ways: as attractive or impressive, and effective in conveying facts and opinions. Although these two ways cannot be said to be independent of each other, I focus here only the latter. The need to establish explicit principles for good information representation is urgent, because information must be transmitted accurately (without loss of fidelity). Bad information representation is proliferating at a rapid pace because of the Internet. There are common and general principles among the six categories of communication: (1) fitness for the goal and receivers, (2) structural coincidence between contents and form, (3) simplicity, (4) hierarchy, (5) disambiguation, (6) consistency, (7) agreement with conventions, (8) continuity, (9) making blocks of information, (10) three- parts configuration of a block, (11) directness, and (12) portability. Specific and illustrative examples of those twelve principles are presented in detail in this paper.