Re: Too much data

Sorry, Ryan. Wrong line of questioning.

Like asking, "What's the answer to the math problem?"

The answer is, "five."

I would recommend identifying audience, then serving the audience that  
has been identified.

"Doctors" doesn't cut it.

Greg


On Feb 3, 2011, at 2:54 PM, Ryan Hanau wrote:

> Hi Mitchell,
>
> It's for the healthcare industry and used by doctors who typically  
> don't
> have a lot of time to spend with the display. The common practice is  
> to
> squeeze lots of data onto a single screen. It's my belief that at  
> some point
> that is a bad idea. More screens with less data would probably be more
> effective.
>
> Ryan
>
> On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 5:06 PM, Mitchell Gass <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> At 01:35 PM 2/3/2011, Ryan Hanau wrote:
>>
>>> Can anyone refer me to any research on how much data a display can  
>>> hold
>>> before it overwhelms its users and comprehension/retention rates  
>>> go down?
>>>
>>> I imagine data density and comprehension/retention rates is bell- 
>>> curved
>>> shaped: too little, just right, and too much. Has this been  
>>> quantified--X
>>> number of data points on a display is just right/too much.
>>>
>>
>> Hi Ryan,
>>
>> Can you tell us anything about the data, the audience for the data,  
>> how and
>> where they'll use the data, and any ideas about how the data will be
>> presented? All of these can influence what's optimal.
>>
>> There may be artful approaches to presenting your data that can  
>> help people
>> take in more of it:
>>
>>
>> http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/02/data-visualization-modern-approaches/
>>
>> Jennifer Tidwell talks about some of the issues in a pattern:
>>
>>
>> http://www.mit.edu/~jtidwell/language/high-density_information_display.html
>>
>> And Tufte may have some useful advice:
>>
>> http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Mitchell Gass
>> uLab | PDA: Learning from Users | Designing with Users
>> Berkeley, CA 94707 USA
>> +1 510 525-6864 office
>> +1 415 637-6552 mobile
>> +1 510 525-4246 fax
>> http://www.participatorydesign.com/
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Greg Austin
[email protected]
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