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Re: [RC] Spiffy new look to the website! OR Broad & Shallow vs. Narrow & Deep - Linda MiramsOn Wed, 17 Jan 2007 09:06:51 -0800, Karen Sullivan wrote Just some thoughts.... ... 2. The new set up of the classifieds will certainly curtail my daily perusing.....I guess being in the dark ages with plain old dial up. it's painfully slow to view ads. Before, I could just scroll down and speed-read and scan ads...reading all the ads probably in less than a few minutes...and could get all the pertinent information in an instant. With the new format...given the titles are whatever; you can't tell if a a horse is old, young, how tall, etc. All that shows up on the main menu is price and location... What Karen is describing is an old, well-known principal in user interface design: When you have alot of information to present, which is better: an interface that is "broad and shallow" or one that is "narrow and deep?" The answer is unequivocally: Broad and Shallow!!! While humans have a natural tendancy to want to classify and structure information into a hierarchy, doing so *when you don't have to* essentially accomplishes one thing and one thing only: it hides information; burying it where it may never be seen. Always show as much of the hierarchy of information as you can at any one time. Broad has to be *very* broad before it begins to, in itself, encumber the user's assimilation of the message. A whole day of Ridecamp posts approaches this limit ;-) Another way of looking at it is: the classifieds used to all be printed on one big sheet of paper. Now they are printed on tiny post-its that you have to view one at a time through a keyhole, with a huge "mouse manipulation" overhead between each tiny snapshot. Or, put another way, all of the increase in bandwith one might get with a DSL or broadband connection has been obliterated by narrowing the portal through which one may view the information to 300 baud. Or, put yet another way: Beware of Second System Syndrome! For a much longer and better discussion of these issues, see Edward Tufte's "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" (or of *any* kind of information for that matter!) Linda (Who does this stuff for a living...) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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