Re: Too much data

I've been working on flight controller interfaces for some years now, where clutter is very closely scrutinized. I'd suggest searching for research papers dealing with visual information clutter and situational awareness in the aviation and flight control field if you want some very well polished data. Each day I review whether an interface addition will stand up to the test of safety and basic interface rules. Composition, proper use of information coding and good architecture are daily struggles, as is the need to cleanly communicate proper interface choices to end developers.

Drop a line if you need some specific research to start.

-Dan

Dan Peknik
Interaction and Industrial Design
NASA Ames Research Center

On Feb 3, 2011, at 3:10 PM, [email protected] wrote:

> I worked on stuff just like this, Ryan. I had quite a fight trying to temper the group's constantly insisting on adding more crap to the screen. I was working for EDS. I had even done some user testing which helped tamp down some of the stuff. Then of course th project was munged altogether but user testing was a good convincer.
> 
> lr
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 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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