Information Overload

Shobhana Lele, CIO, Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company

Shobhana Lele, CIO, Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company

Let's begin with some statistics. There are massive volumes of new information coming our way every day. In a 60-sec-ond period of time, 3.3 million Facebook posts are made, 500 hours of YouTube videos are uploaded, and 150,000 emails are sent. A single person is bombarded with so much information that it can fill-up more than 175 newspapers in a day.

Humans are not built to process all of that information at a time. Therefore, when an attempt is made to process more than what one can handle, brains become fatigued, and there comes an instance of 'information overload'.

We live in the age of information overload. Data is the new oil, and information is the new power. But are we using it effectively? When there is an abundance of information, it is very easy to get overwhelmed and confused. Today, there are a lot of mediums which keep bombarding information on us. The logical mind needs to decide which information is fake, which is relevant, is there a time period for its applicability, where can this information be used, when does it need to be trashed and so on and so forth. The more information we see, the more we want to consume. The more we consume, the more overload we feel.

Causes of Information Overload
There are, of course, nearly as many causes of information overload as there are bits of information available to us. However, the most common reasons behind modern information overload include:
· Huge volumes of new information being constantly created
· Pressure to create and compete in information provision leading to a quantity over quality effect in many industries
· The simplicity of creating, duplicating and sharing of information online
· The exponential increase in channels to receive information by; radio, television, print media, websites, e-mail, mobile telephony, RSS feeds, and others.
· The increasing weight of historical data available to us
· High volumes of conflicting, contradictory and plain old inaccurate information
· No simple methodologies for quickly processing, comparing and evaluating information sources
· A lack of clear structure in groups of information and poor clues as to the relationships between those group
Effects of Information Overload
• Experience adverse mental and social health issues
• Experience behavioural, learning and attention problems
• Symptoms of frustration and reduced tolerance
• Affects individual performance and ability to solve problems
• Require more time to reach a decision
What can you do?
Although there is no simple solution to the problem, there are some things that can be done to reduce the problem:
• Spending less time on gaining information that is nice to know and more time on information that is must to know Focusing in quality of information rather than quantity
• Single tasking and focusing on completing one task at a time
• Learn how to create better information
• Application in IT Applications

Anxiety isn't caused by the large amount of information in itself, but rather by the large amount of irrelevant information.

It is no wonder that, increasingly a crucial part of a user experience (UX) or user interface (UI) designer's job is to ensure that just the right amount of information appears on a webpage or app screen-enough to make it relevant, but not so much that it causes information overload.

How To Handle Information Overload
Stop Thinking Of More As More:
As IT, your primary goal is to deliver maximum value to your business operations, but that does not necessitate delivering humongous amounts of data and information. Therefore, stop thinking of more as more.

Focus On Benefits:
Pay attention to the bigger picture and share only details that have a meaning to the business. How do all those details benefit the business? What can people learn from them? Avoid technical jargon by all means.

Bring-out A Use Case Or Tell A Story:
Beyond data points, how can you share your information in a narrative that will have the audience sitting up straight in their seats? Do you have a use case or a case study that is relevant to your topic or how your information was used by another company with stellar results?

Anxiety isn't caused by the large amount of information in itself, but rather by the large amount of irrelevant information

Shobhana Lele, CIO, Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company

Avoiding Information Overload in Designs:
The question then becomes; how do we help our users avoid information overload what can we as designers do to try and alleviate the burden of information?

Tips to avoid information overload in designs include:
. Keep things simple. The less information you present the easier it is to understand
. Keep it relevant. Information that actually meets the user's needs is less likely to overwhelm
. Keep it clear. Simplicity and relevance are good but information needs clarity to be effective
. Provide supporting information. If a user needs more information, make sure it's easily accessible
. Provide balanced information. You should present both sides of the coin rather than just one
. Make it clear what is to be done with the information. What action should the user take? Why should they take it?
. Make it easy for the user to take action. If they need to complete a task there and then make it accessible and make it obvious.

Avoiding Information Overload Ourselves
We also need to ensure that we don't fall victim to information overload ourselves. This can be done by using any or all of the following tactics:
. Feel free to ignore information. That doesn't mean ignore e-mail from your boss or your clients but recognizing that you can't consume every drop of information out there and not feel guilty for ignoring some (or a lot) of it.
. Feel free to take action without getting overwhelmed with all the facts. We all do this at times ask yourself 'what's the worst that can happen?' when you realize the answer is 'probably, not a lot' just take action.
. Create an information queue and tackle it on a regular basis. Don't feel pressured to deal with information as it arrives; put it to one side and tackle it in a quiet time of the day.
. Filter information ruthlessly. Create filters on your e-mail box and ensure that only priority material catches your eye during the day. Use filters in your searches to reduce the amount of information you get on Google. Only deal with what is relevant and/or important.
. Delegate information responsibilities. If you are part of a team don't take responsibility for knowing everything; encourage people to specialize and then rely on their understanding.
. Learn to skim. Most information really only contains a key point or two grab those points and move on.

The Take Away
Information overload is a real phenomenon which prevents us from taking decisions or actions because we feel we have too much information to consume. There are some simple tips to minimize both information overload for the users of our designs and which we can use to prevent information overload on ourselves. In short, share the business relevant information taking care of UI and design aspects where applicable so that maximum time is spent on relevant information, thereby facilitating quicker but good decisions.