Customer Reviews

Information Anxiety

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Well, sure, it's good. Wurman did come up with the term Information Architecture (as he reminds us), and has some good insightful stuff to say about it. Too bad that much of this book is pretty much the same kinds of information that you find on the web about IA: Mark Hurst and Nathan Shedroff have pieces nearly identical to stuff on their sites, and there are copious quotations from familiar online voices and sources. A chapter about online commerce as "conversation" is derived pretty much wholesale from the Cluetrain Manifesto. In the end, it all pretty much boils down to listen to your customers, take some risks, ask the right questions.

Some of Wurman's opinions sound a little disingenuous in light of his own online work: a chapter which contains the standard complaints about high-bandwidth sites that don't offer useful information (useless plug-ins, over-reliance on graphics instead of text, etc) also points us to Wurman's Understanding USA web site, which starts with a Flash intro animation, is built almost solely from graphics, and even uses a Java applet in its Site Map.

It's too bad, but this really comes across as an entry-level text about presenting information in multiple contexts, including online. There's more about management style than I'd care for, and less about what kinds of visual presentations support what kinds of information. It's admirably up-to-date: it's impressive that he managed to include the Florida ballot in a book printed in November 2000, for example.

Finally, I could have done without the frequent and lengthy references to TED, Wurman's own annual conference of designers, businesspeople, and entertainers. The thing sounds like fun, but in the context of the book, the relevance is rarely clear.

I am taking the unusual step of rating this book "1 star" to express my extremely high level of dissatisfaction at its quality and usefullness. There is no question that Richard Saul Wurman is a highly gifted individual, and his ACCESS books are fabulous. But this poorly-edited, disorganized book fails to capture or convey any of the insights that went into that or other successful Wurman projects.

My guess is that this project was conceived as a quickie update to the original Information Anxiety to take advantage of Internet mania, and as such much of the work was delegated to others, but without sufficient review and editing. (There are too many editing mistakes to list here, but suffice it to say that probably few books have a misspelling in the Table Of Contents as this one does -- "Informatgion" instead of "Information".)

RSW tells us that it's important to always start off with what the question is. Problem is, he doesn't follow his own advice in that book. He careens uncontrollably from gushy predictions about the future, to cataclysmic warnings of information deluge, to superficial suggestions on software and web design, to facile pop management advice, The only thread connecting all these disjointed pieces is that he strictly limits himself to talking about how important something or other is, without ever giving specific advice about how to approach it.

I am personally interested in the field of localization and globalization. So naturally I was curious as to what insight RSW brought to this area. What I found was a single, lonely page on the topic, with a few lines of simplistic patter, and a strange, unexplained diagram of various fountain pens with country names associated with each.

I am also interested in the combination of text and graphics to present information and in fact bought this book thinking it might have some insights in that regards. So I was quite happy to see in the Table of Contents a section Design in the Digital Age, summarized as "In this Digital Age we need to focus on the connections among all design elements: medium, words, pictures, and sound." Alas, true to form, all the section in question does is repeat that we need to focus on this, with no clue as how we might actually do that, nor a single example in sight. To get an idea of the poor editing quality of this book, consider the following paragraph from this section:

"Where words meet pictures meet sound creates understanding. Are you a value-based organization? A service-based organization? A quality-based organization? Are you all three? We test communication by conveying a message and having the recipient understand it, be interested in it, and remember it. Any other measure is unimportant and invalid." Does anyone else wonder how the stuff about organizations fits in here? It's just random cut-and-paste content that accidentally found its way here, never to receive the benefit of the editor's pen. Signs of rampant cut-and-pasting abound throughout the book.

Although not really the fault of the author(s), the book is also seriously dated, having come out while there was still some degree of dot-com mania going on (although the peak was passed). So you can read this book on sort of an archaeological level, to recall all the bizarre things people were saying back in those heady days. Internet refrigerators, anyone?

I probably don't need to summarize; let me simply say you are best off spending your time and money on virtually any book on this topic besides this one.

The basic theme of this book reinforces my long-held belief that the next killer app in computing will be some new way to visually display relationships between information. A new discipline is also going to spring up and those good at it will be in great demand. That new area of study will be a knowledge distiller, someone expert in taking the enormous amount of information about a topic and reducing it down to a base form. We see the initial steps in this trend with the extraordinary success of the ". . For Dummies" series of books. Their appeal is based on the basic formula of making things as simple as possible but no simpler.
As Wurman points out, while there is an information explosion, the real problem is a malinformation (my term) explosion. In other words, information that does not inform. This is not just a reference to that which is inaccurate, but information that is correct but so malformed or obscure to be misleading. He also argues that a critical rethinking needs to be done concerning how we learn. The premise is that the rewards for asking the right questions need to be improved rather than the continued emphasis on answering questions. We also need to rediscover much of our inner child.
At some point in our lives, we "mature" to the state where we will do almost anything to avoid embarrassment. This trait leads us to ignore inconsistencies and sit in silence when we don't understand. The childlike innocence that causes us to ask "obvious" questions goes away, replaced by fear of failure, which leads to an aversion to risk. Without the willingness to take a chance, many new things are not attempted, which limits the options for us all.
This is a book that you must think deeply about. The world is changing rapidly, and the most successful people will be those who know how to cull knowledge down to the true essentials. There are an enormous number of ideas in the book that can be used to assist this process. If you value the future and want to have a significant part in creating it, then you should read this book. Proper implementation of some of the ideas presented here will change the way we do things in the future.

I was about to give book two stars. As several reviewers have pointed out, IA2 wanders off into superficial discussions of self-help and managerial principles, and is full of self-promotion from cover to cover (literally). You expect a conference registration card each time you turn a page.

But just as RSW must have been trembling in his black turtleneck with the prospect of receiving such a low rating on Amazon, I realized that it is precisely his ego that made the experience great. The undiluted point of view stemming from genuine interests, with ample random and not-so-random diversions, raises enough questions and opens enough doors to be more than worth the baggage.

The book is like one of those flights where you skip ordering cocktails until you pass out, because you have been seated next to someone interesting -- it requires a bit more effort, but is ultimately more rewarding too. So four it is.

Nice and impressive at first but ultimately it doesn't tell you how to do such great things yourself nor does it prove why some things are better. One case in point is in the intro he seems to say that pie charts are bad and 3d shadowed pie charts are worse, but then he features an article (on calories) that has, suprise, 3d pie charts. It's a keeper and I want to pass it around but it's not perfect. In contrast I believe on of the "Toz on UI" books (By Bruce Tog.... of Apple) at least refers to studies done to "prove" that certain ways of designing the screens are empiracally better.

I read Wurman's first Info. Anxiety years ago and hungrily gobbled up the great reviews of this sequel. The book, however, is a crashing disappointment. While Wurman evinces the appreciation for the obvious that makes all high-priced consultants worth their fees, he hasn't stretched himself with this work.

Wurman offers nothing new either to expand upon or address his theories of Information Anxiety. Strangely, I have found this book to be all but unreadable except in very short bursts. The marginalia are rarely illuminating, occasionally thought-provoking, and frequently distracting. Even the book's size, weight, and the design of it's massive-flapped cover make it difficult to handle -- issues which one would think Wurman would have addressed.

This guy's past his prime.

If you want a kind of phone book full of thoughts and grousing and preaching on information and how to handle it, "Information Anxiety" is for you. But don't expect something you can actually "read like a book." A mishmash indeed, and disappointing. Wurman seems to project his own information anxiety onto the reader, assuming the reader suffers from it, when that may or may not be the case. I personally have no trouble passing up reading newspapers, magazines, websites, etc. I read what I want or need to read. If I don't read everything that I could possibly read, so what. Life goes on, and has other sources of fulfillment. In fact, maybe people like me are just not in his intended audience. I can see how his books might be valuable as a source of ideas for improving various communications. But, *very* ironically, the format he uses screws up what could have been much more useful material if it were organized better, and streamlined, and easier on the eyes. For the life of me, I don't understand why someone who wants to reduce information anxiety would put non-linear information (e.g., quotes) in the margins, so the reader doesn't know what to read first, and may easily lose his or her place. It's like he throws information at you compulsively and without restraint while telling you about the woes of being deluged with information. What's up with that?

If you or someone you know CARES about the issue of communication, this book is a must read. If I was a millionaire, I might like to send copies of this book to all the documentation people in our computer software and consumer electronics industry. Wurman dares to stand up and point out the differences between "data" and "information". The way the text of this book is formatted even speaks volumes. He shows us how to do more with less and jump over hurdles that bar us from understanding

I don't know if I'm being overly sensitive to the poor layout and design but how can Saul Wurman expound on the subject of Information Anxiety when the material is obstructed by the horsey typography (just look at the table of contents is laid out), unclear delineation of passages (everything's bunched up), inexplicable, visually jarring use of black bars over numerous pull quotes, competing, heavily caked fonts in bolds. Excess visual noise is a major cause of Information Anxiety. Its a trait so endemic in websites, tax forms, technical manuals and... now this book from Wurman. Its such an anti-thesis to good information design.

And then there's the material itself. A convoluted, pastiche of personal anecdotes, home remedies for organizational management, random musings and dazed observations on the subject.

If you are genuinely interested in addressing the problem of Information Anxiety, this book will NOT provide with you with meaningful insights and solutions.

This is a substantially revised and updated version of a book first published in 1989. In fact, it has been 26 years since Wurman formulated his concept of "information architecture." The primary focus in this version, however, is the same: what amounts to the equivalent of ADD at a time when "information overload" continues to create problems with the recognition, differentiation, digestion, and application of data. (Davenport and Beck also have much of great value to say about this phenomenon in their new book, The Attention Economy.) As Wurman explains, he offers "new maps for navigating through a stream of bytes that leaves us inundated with data but starved for tools & patterns that give them meaning." He asserts that there has not been an "information explosion"; rather, an explosion of "non-information" or data that simply do not inform. What to do? Within 17 separate but interdependent chapters, Wurman suggests dozens of strategies and tactics which are guided by "new maps" and implemented with new "tools" inorder to organize data in new "patterns." The result is an eloquent as well as insightful "manifesto" for the 21st century.

Here is a consolidation of Wurman's key points in the first chapter: "We live in an age of alsos, adapting to alternatives. because we have greater access to information, many of us have become more involved in researching, and making our own decisions, rather than relying on experts. The opportunity is that there is so much information, the catastrophe is that 99% of it isn't meaningful or understandable. We need to rethink how we present information because the information appetites of people are much more refined. Success in our connected world requires that we isolate the specific information we need and get it to those we work with. If information is the product of the Digital Age, then the Internet is the transportation vehicle. That means more misinformation. The sheer volume of available information and the manner in which it is often delivered render much of it useless to us. The best teachers give us permission to get in touch with ourselves and become more of us. Everyone needs a personal measure to distinguish useful information from raw data. To entertain the radical idea that understanding might involve accepting chaos threatens the foundations of our existence." Wurman and his associates explore and develop other equally important ideas in each of the other 16 chapters. By indulging their interests throughout their own lives, "and perhaps because rather than despite many failures", they have been able to design their lives. They invite their reader to become engaged, not merely involved, in the same perilous but ultimately fulfilling process. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Davenport and Beck's new book (identified earlier) as well as Borgmann's Holding On to Reality, Drexler's Engines of Invention, Hamel's Leading the Revolution, Locke et al's The Cluetrain Manifesto, and Nielsen's Designing Web Usability. From my perspective, the new century is rapidly becoming what could be characterized as a new "Renaissance" or (if you prefer) "Enlightenment" which these and other contemporary thinkers are now in the process of establishing.