A sad day for Information Design...

As a subscriber to the Info-Design mailinglist I received this sad message from moderator Karel van der Waarde:

Dear list,

This morning, I received a message from Piet Westendorp's partner that Piet passed away on November 19th.

His achievements in Information Design and many related areas are substantial. To pick just three out of his long lists of publications and presentations:

• co-author of 'Open Here. The art of instructional design' (1999)
  
• editor of Information Design Journal (2000-2004)
  
• guest editor of a Visible language issue on 'Visual metaphors in user instructions' (2007)

However, just mentioning a few publications does not do justice to his influence on education, research and practice. His involvement in the Technical Universities of Delft and Eindhoven (the Netherlands), his publications in a variety of research areas, and his continuous involvement in commercial practice made him a true all-round professional.

Piet Westendorp has been a remarkable person. I'll miss his clarity of thinking and his direct aproach, but even more, I'll miss his inspirational enthusiasm and curiosity.

Kind regards,
Karel.
waarde@glo.be

The field of information design has just lost a leader. It is a sad day.