Information Overload
In our everyday life we are bombarded with information:advertisements in the mail box, fast paced TV, interviews never lastingmore than three minutes, signs and symbols everywhere we go, internetpages, chat sessions, offers to buy this or to do that, and lots ofother stuff. We are overloaded with information: the more input,the more we shut off and become cynical. But ad-people, designers andproducers respond by feeding us MORE information!The reason is that we / they rest in a 300 year old mindset,established and maintained by newspapers: that as much information aspossible should be conveyed in as little space as possible. The Latinword omnibus means "everything for everybody" andthat old newspaper doctrine shows as a desire to impress through adiversity of features mixed in a big bowl of confusion. The intention is to show the most products and information, so that each one has a ”scatter-gun”-ish opportunity to reach a target audience: ”Look how exciting I am, here you won’t be bored”. The focusing on features results in everything being emphasized - and therefore that nothing really is!I call it featureism.- Featureism is a statement of what the transmitter wants to sell. It’s not a guide for the recipient to find what she wants.
- Featureism is not information. It’s desperation.
- Featureism is to go against our nature. It is to go against the way humans naturally interprets our surroundings.
- Featureism is bad communication and the result is information overload.
But there is another way...Focused Information[img=http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/information_overload_focused.gif]information_overload_focused.gif[/img]All communication is basically about saying theright thing to the right one at the right time in the right way. Theeasiest thing in this equation is the external part, finding the target audience, while the hard thing is to handle the internal part: the transmitter: The hard part is to shut up. The result, however, is transmitter focus, instead of recipient focus, the result is lost attention and lost market shares.I know how hard it is, as a transmitter, to focus on the recipientand how easy it is to think of oneself. Besides philosophizing onmedia, communication and technology, I also (once in a while) designwebsites. I know the feeling of wanting to sell websites but ALSO sellmy ideas (you’re reading some of them now) - because I love both somuch and would hate to prioritize between them. My brain knows that it’s best to split the two areas,but my heart would rather not let go - and the result is that I sendmixed signals of who I am and what I do. My customers also know howhard it is to limit oneself - when I create their sites, the hard partisn’t to convince them to try a radical design-idea of mine, but ratherto convince them to limit themselves in terms of content. They respondin a slightly desperate tone: ”...but Mikkel, I also do this and that - those things must be included!”But the customer is NOT always right - and thebrochures and websites of even big and famous companies cannot be usedas an ideal of well designed communication - to the contrary! Thebigger the company is, the worse it’s communication usually is - simplybecause it isn’t capable of administering and conveying all theinformation.Information Tunnels[img=http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/information_overload_information_tunnel.gif]information_overload_information_tunnel.gif[/img]Focused information often use what I call information tunnels.Communication is focused when it’s precisely adjusted to a certaingroup of recipients. When a transmitter adjusts a certain message toseveral groups of recipients, and allow the individual recipient tochoose which group she belongs to, the transmitter has created aninformation tunnel.Using information tunnels effectively, means thatone can divide all recipients in groups - but these doesn’t have to besocio- or demographically based. I believe that dividing people by ageor income, or voting pattern, is less important. It’s why they interactwith you, their intention, that counts!To illustrate: all recipients of this very article can be divided into three categories:- Those that has found it by curiosity - they are interested in an easy-understandable and entertaining communication.
- Those that were looking for information on marketing - they want a practical guideline in using the theories.
- And those recipients that are media- and communication theorists - they desire a scientifically valid communication.
In this case, the recipient’s age or daily-life isof no or little importance, only their intention for reading this:whether they are belonging to 1, 2 or 3. My claim is that whatever we do, we are notsociologically founded, we are intentionally founded. Key to reaching arecipient is not knowing her age, but what she wants to do. As you see,this article is not an example of information tunnels or focusedinformation (rather it is one of featureism) but this article wouldhave been so, if I had made three of them, each catering to the desiresof each of the recipient groups.For instance, take this example of how to effectively create an information tunnel: On the front page of "www.tag-eksperten.dk” there’s a large picture of a craftsman on a roof, and the explicit text: ”welay new tile roofs for home owners on Sealand) - specific offer,thorough consultation, a new roof in a league of it’s own, delivered inonly four weeks”. In this way the company’s business,mission, geographic reach and terms of trade are all precisely definedin words and pictures. At the bottom there are three boxes which might seem like features, but in reality are information tunnels: - ”Choose tiles”
- ”Calculate price of a new roof”
- ”8 tips on roof renovating”
Thus exists an entrance for those most interested in the looks oftheir new roof, one for those worried about the price, and one forthose with a do-it-yourself attitude. On the other hand, it must besaid that the language is the same throughout the website, so in thisway it doesn’t abide the principle of information tunnels.An accepted idea in business communication is integrated communication: - That all parts of a company ”speaks the same language”
- That communication is stream-lined
Besides this principle being de facto impossible - maybeeven undesirable - to realize, it doesn’t influence focusedinformation: integrated communication deals with the company'scommunication with, and in relation to, it’s surroundings: what’s to besaid. Focused information deals with how it’s to be said.Focused information is therefore not to change the message, but to vary the delivery and expression, depending on whom the recipient is.The Trend In Society[img=http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/information_overload_featurism_old_new.jpg]information_overload_featurism_old_new.jpg[/img]Another way to view information overload, is as trend in society. The problem today isn’t obtaining information - the problem is to organize it.- The history of media started with the invention of writing, which made it possible to convey knowledge across time and space.
- The printing press, with its efficiency and cheapness, made the written knowledge accessible to many.
- The telegraph contributed with a previously impossible speed, resulting in an even greater availability of information.
- The original internet was merely a new form, a technological reincarnation, of the principle.
- Today's internet, by some called Web 2.0,gives an even greater amount of information, through easy tools forcreating, publishing and sharing - this article is an example.
The history of media is thus a single continuousexpansion of access to information, now available in enormousquantities - the key word here is quantity. The new is the opposingmovement that is awakening: de-selecting quantity and passivereception, to the advantage of quality and active selection. We see itin avoidance of advertisements, traditional media losesreaders/viewers, growing numbers even stop watching TV, internettechnologies allows customized information channels, etc.The key word here is quality. For on the one hand, technology increased the availability, but at the same time it has lowered the ”cost of access / entry” and increased individuality. ”Ordinary people”have regained control, in a form of technological democratization. Theindividual can avoid information overload and increase the amount ofrelevance in her life.The New Way Of Living[img=http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/information_overload_producer_customer_NGO.jpg]information_overload_producer_customer_NGO.jpg[/img]In everyday life, this reaction to informationoverload, is seen in a general return to origins, to a lower pace. Itshows in an mild increasing interest in spartan ways of living, nudism,and a general “turning inwards”, among other things towards philosophy, religion and emotional health. The opposite of information overload - silence,emptiness and thoughtfulness - is trendy already: monasteriesexperience great interest, pilgrimages have returned. The mostsuccessful publications are niche-oriented and deals with a narrowsubject, or they are dealing with any kind of emotional issue. A symbolof this movement could be Eckhart Tolle: a secretive author that sells millions of books about spirituality.In the last 20 years, the most talked about, has been that which didn’t strive for being talked about: - The café that is only discovered though word of mouth
- A membership only obtained through fulfilling secret criteria
- a musician that appears incognito
- A product in limited editions, etc.
All this is a a different kind of quality.Another result of information overload, is the waywe relate to each other. Because a greater part of our time is used ona computer, and as being single, an increasingly greater part of ourrole models and friendships are found in, and through, the new media.The common theme of almost all currently successful companies andtechnologies, is the fact that they connect people: The success of a product or service depends on howmany connections it opens. The two major themes that has to beconsidered in any project, is thus that which is immaterial, and thatwhich connects. The third major theme which I’ll write about in anotherIDmag, is that which I call The CoCreating Consumer.You’ve now reached the end of my introduction to informationoverload, and a couple of my tools and advice on how to avoid it. Therest merely requires you to use your critical sense, a littleimagination and some courage.Good luck!MikkelPhoto credits:All images by MikkelOriginally written by Mikkel for Design Af Mikkel and first published as "Information Overload: What It Is And You Can Avoid It" on September 18th 2008About the author[img=http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/information_overload_mikkel.jpg]information_overload_mikkel.jpg[/img]Mikkel is a market expert andweb-designer. He focuses his attention on communication techniques andhow information should be provided to be as efficient as possible. Onhis own site Design Af Mikkel he writes: "Myphilosophy is about balance, about holism. About reaching each other inthe best way, about doing it honestly and about having fun along theway." Mikkel has written some valuable papers about information design and "Information Overload" is one of them. |
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