This project entailed a communications audit of existing print and online materials distributed on Parliament Hill for mainstream tourist and education, including research, audience interviews, analysis, reporting and recommendations.
The Library of Parliament requested David Berman Communications to evaluate the impact of the paper and Web-based publications about Parliament that are distributed to educators, interested parties, and visitors to the Centre Block of Parliament. David Berman Communications responded to these requests through design research, exit interviews of visitors to the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, inventoring and information mapping of existing publications, both printed and online analysis of the graphic design of the publications.
Site Visits
The site visits focused on several objectives:
- Counting the touch points where the Library of Parliament designed and displayed information to communicate and enrich the visitors;
- Planning the location for exit interviews to understand the uptake of printed material available to the public. In addition, David Berman Communications reviewed the Web site of the Parliament of Canada (http://www.parl.gc.ca) to understand the current relationship between the Web-based and print material.
Graphic Design Analysis
Design analysis of a collection of publications starts with categorizing according to standard graphic design criteria: overall look and feel, typography, colour, imagery, size, and format. We then chart our findings to determine what design criteria they share or how they differ.
Print and Online usage
Some of the most basic information required to develop meaningful recommendations are the statistics that describe the uptake of the current information assets, whether they be print publications or those made available on
Information Mapping
The information mapping activity begins with a review of all booklets and brochures supplied to David Berman Communications. We developed an information classification schema during that review. The publications are analyzed to inventory the contents of each according to the schema. The resulting chart graphically identified tareas of information overlap.