Design: too much information

Feb 1, 2008

Most sites oppress and confound, fragmenting and breaking off information.

“I suspect, however, that (Funes) was not exactly versed in thinking. Thinking means forgetting differences, generalizing, abstracting.” (Funes, o Memorioso, Ficções, Jorge Luis Borges).

“In order to think, we inevitably need to generalize, and in doing so, we must forget”

A short while ago, I was reading a book about memory when I came across a note on the short story Funes, O Memorioso, by Jorge Luis Borges.

In the short story above, Borges describes a character, Irineu Funes who, from a certain point in his life on, develops perfect memory, that is, he is able to recall absolutely everything. He manages to grasp the particulars of everything he lives, capable to remember a whole day of his life in minute detail, to the last second, even if it took him another whole day to do so.

However, what most impressed me about Funes was not his astonishing memory skills, but his “inability to forget”.

“In order to think, we inevitably need to generalize, and in doing so, we must forget”. (A Memória de Borges, Virgílio Fernandes Almeida).

Transporting this account into the universe of design, we realize that the Internet is becoming increasingly similar to Funes. The number of details and the overabundance of information in today’s sites smother users. Most current sites oppress and confound, fragmenting and breaking off information.

“Nevertheless, I suspect that (Funes) was not capable of thinking… In Funes’ overloaded world there was nothing but details…” (Funes, o Memorioso, Ficções, Jorge Luis Borges).

Web designers must realize they do not have to “show users everything”, overloading them with information and details, for the latter are no sooner perceived than they are forgotten.

“… (men) end up hauling, everywhere, a formidable amount of insufferable pebbles of knowledge, which now and then still rumble in the stomach…” (Considerações Extemporâneas, Nietzsche

Men’s memory is innately selective. Human beings possess an amazing ability to see the world which is radically opposed to that of Funes’. We are even able to look somewhere and see what is not there.

Nothing comes closer to human thought than hyperlinks. Through them, contrary to Funes’ cumulative system, we but connect, traverse, slide, and navigate.

Web design must be given a boost in order to be potentially creative, enveloped in a veil of mystery, vitality, strength, necessary illusion, blindness, bias.

Web design must go back to making users think!