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Navigating the information maze
Throughout the day people continuously make decisions; some require significant effort and thought, while others are so effortless that they scarcely register as conscious choices.
Navigating the web is no different.
Decision-making to meet goals and complete tasks
Every day people search for information on the web with purpose. Typically, they have a goal and a series of tasks to complete to achieve their goal. Along the way they’ll need to find information and make decisions to help them complete these tasks. For example, a prospective undergraduate student want to get an undergraduate degree. This goal can be broken down into a series of smaller goals to complete along their journey to getting an undergraduate degree.
To start, they’ll need to apply to universities and get admitted.
This will be a multi-step process involving a series of tasks and decisions.
| Task | Decision to be made |
|---|---|
| Identify universities who have the program they are interested in. | Does this university have the program? |
| Review admissions requirements. | Am I eligible? |
| Find the cost of the program and what opportunities to off-set the cost are available. | Is this in my budget? |
| Learn more about the student life. | Will I be happy and belong here? |
| Find deadline information. | When do I need to apply? |
| Understand the application process. | What do I need to submit? How long will this take? |
| Submit the application on time. | When is this due? |
The role of efficiency in information foraging and mental fatigue
When people look for information to help them complete tasks, they want to do so in the most efficient way possible. This is called information foraging. That means people don’t click on every link, scroll every page or read every word, rather, they strategically look for relevant information and rely on cues or “information scent” to guide them to the right place.
Ideally, this should be an effortless process for people to find what they are looking for and focus their energy on completing their tasks. In the classic book “Don’t Make Me Think” Steve Krug rightfully suggests that a website should let people compete their tasks as easily and directly as possible.
We want to avoid people deliberating over the following questions:
- What should I read next?
- If I keep reading will I find the information that I’m looking for?
- Am I in the right place?
- Where should I click to next? and will I find what I’m looking for there?
If people need to stop and think about their information foraging, this process has become effortful and people could experience mental fatigue. “Cognitive fatigue, also known as mental fatigue, is generally observed during or after prolonged engagement in effortful cognitive tasks” (Van Cutsem et al., 2017; Brown et al., 2020; Skau et al.)
The problem with mental fatigue is that decisions get harder to make. The risk is that someone might make a poor decision or could just give up if the information is too hard to find OR if they think it’s going to take too much effort and it’s not worth it. https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/12400/effort-based-decision-making-and-cognitive-fatigue
One of the underlying principles of usability is efficiency, which essentially means that someone should be able to complete a task as directly and easily as possible. “Don’t make me think”. Let people focus their mental energy on the tasks they are trying to complete and not the process of getting the information they need. We need to make it as easy as possible for people to find what they are looking for, understand the information and make decisions.
Learn more about usability with the Nielsen Norman Group's Introduction to usability and Ten usability heuristics.
How to simplify decision-making for your audience
Know your audience and their goal:
- Identify tasks they are trying to complete and roughly in what order.
- Understand the decisions theyneed to make to complete their tasks.
- Know what information they are looking for to help them make decisions.
- Familiarize yourself with the words they use.
Structure the website or page to support the audience.
- The purpose of the site or page should support a goal or task.
- Order the information on the page to align with what the audience needs.
- Surface information to help them make decisions.
- Chunk the content with meaningful headings for your audience to help them scan the page for information.
If you don’t have a complete picture of your audience reach out to the web team for consultation. We can help fill in the blanks and optimize your content for the web.
