Information overload

​It can be difficult to find the balance when it comes to information provision - give too little and your users will become abandoned, lost in your site or product and unable to work out where to go next.

However, the same result can happen if you provide too much data or instruction. It might seem helpful at first to provide all possible permutations of advice - but actually you are creating the same sense of abandonment. It will only serve to distract rather than assist and the end result is the same - frustration and confusion.

Here's a couple of real-life examples to put that above statement in context - and yes, I did really just want to include these on a blogpost, but they do also encapsulate exactly what I have said....give too much information to a driver/pedestrian/lost tourist on a Microsoft conference in Seattle and the result is total and utter confusion.

Trust me. I've been there.

Figure 1: a traffic signpost in Seattle, as a driver I'm not
sure what's relevant, are you?

Figure 2: another example of a signpost that is targetting
cyclists, pedestrians and motorists at the same time, I think?