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More drowning in data |
no signposts in the sea
The Internet is exponentially increasing the amount of data available. Internet users have trouble finding the content they want and are often exhausted and frustrated by the experience, yet the value of information is directly tied to peoples' ability to find and then use it. |
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On a general level, this is caused by:
- The unstructured, rhizomatic nature of the Internet means there is no underlying comprehensible structure >>
- Lack of universal conventions, such as those developed for the hard-print world or for navigating around the 'real' world, which aid finding information >>
- Available tools, such as search engines and bookmarks, are unable to maintain currency and are, therefore, inadequate >>
Suggested solutions include:
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More the internet is rhizomatic |
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More |
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More early solutions: search engines |
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More the links effect |
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More visualizing the datasphere |
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More spatial metaphors |
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More digital cities and electric suburbias |
Site owners face the problem of keeping users on their site and having them return to the site. Users tend to skim and surf, skipping from one site to another. This, in part, arises from the sheer chaotic, insubstantial, metastasizing nature of the Internet and its attendant technologies. But equally this tendency arises from lack of confidence that the site they're viewing contains what they're looking for.
Whilst there is little that an individual can do to address the state of the Internet, there is much that can be done to improve user experience within web sites. The challenge is to design sites that turn net surfers into a web divers. This is the realm of Information Design.
communication = design
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