=================== Good Experience - 24 July 07 ====================
By Mark Hurst
Sign up: http://goodexperience.com/signup.php
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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

- Disbelief in information overload
- (Revisiting the idea of) Facilitating customer experience
- For more reading...
- 4 Job Openings: West Virginia, NYC, Miami/LA, Chicago
- This Is Broken update
- Fun Stuff

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Disbelief in information overload
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There's a Zen koan that tells of a hurried and stressed businessman
who comes to a Zen master for guidance. The Zen master sits down and
pours the visitor a cup of tea. But even after the tea fills the
cup, the Zen master continues to pour, allowing the tea to spill all
over the table. The businessman says, "Stop pouring the tea! The cup
is full and can't hold any more." The Zen master replies, "So it is
with you. You can't accept any guidance unless you make some empty
space first."

I think about that koan a lot as I advocate for bit literacy - a set
of skills that focus on *letting the bits go*, thus liberating
people to be in charge of their lives, and not enslaved to their
technology. (I just wrote a book about it: http://bitliteracy.com )
People are generally receptive to the idea, but occasionally I meet
(or read a review from) someone who dismisses the idea. "Why
bother?" they say. "I have thousands of e-mails to reply to, todos
to act on, blogs to read, and files to organize, and I feel fine. It
would be a waste of time to make an empty space." Meanwhile the tea
pours all over their desk.

More often than not this reaction comes from intelligent,
well-meaning, good people who just happen not to believe in
information overload. Such is the case with the review of my book
"Bit Literacy" in Salon.com two weeks ago, in a piece called "Empty
thine in-box," by my friend Scott Rosenberg:
http://urlx.org/salon.com/2654e

He writes:

> Hurst's method is, at its heart, profoundly alien. ... [My e-mail
> inbox] contains 16,694 messages. Once, I suppose, [it] must have
> had a zero message count -- maybe back in 1991, when I got my
> first e-mail account. It has not seen zero since.
>
> Yet I do not struggle ... My inbox is not a desk that must be
> cleared. It is a river from which I can always easily fish
> whatever needs my attention. Why try to push the river? ... Do we
> really want the job of in-box attendant and e-mail folder file
> clerk?

Scott, and most of the other vocal skeptics of the method, share one
thing in common: they have never actually *tried* becoming
bit-literate. They pass judgment on it from the outside. Imagine a
movie reviewer holding forth on a movie he never saw, or a foodie
evaluating an untasted dish. Funny.

There can be many reasons why people dismiss the idea out of hand.
For starters, it can be hard to admit that one needs help, or needs
to change at all. It's often more comfortable to stay up-to-date
with the latest tools. Whatever the technology industry releases or
upgrades, and whatever the technology press (and blogosphere) says
is "hot," is what some people immediately flock to. (Nice techie,
good techie, sit, stay, roll over.)

But often, at the heart of the argument - and I think this is the
case with Scott's piece - is a philosophical difference. The first
sentence in "Bit Literacy" is "Bits are heavy." That's the hook of
the book - the lever upon which the entire argument rests - and I
think some people disagree right away. They believe that bits are
weightless, frictionless, and can only help us. The more
information, the better.

Thus I was happy to come across a piece in The Economist, called
"Too much information," that supports my case:
http://urlx.org/economist.com/47c3c (reg. required)

> More information does not necessarily lead to better decisions.
> [One] study ... gave horse-racing handicappers varying amounts of
> information when ranking horses. The more information they
> received, the more confident they became about their answers. But
> the success of their predictions was actually worse when given 40
> pieces of information, than when given five.

It only makes sense. Too much information, at some point, will begin
to decrease one's effectiveness. That's what Barry Schwartz wrote
about in his book "The Paradox of Choice," after all. Why is it so
hard for people to accept that idea when it comes to managing their
information? (Because it requires admitting that you need to
change.)

It's not a difficult concept to grasp. If information overload
exists *at all*, it follows logically that, at some degree of
overload, people should make some empty space. Let the bits go.

However, if you *don't* believe that bits are heavy, and you *don't*
believe in information overload, or Barry's book, or my book, or The
Economist piece, then by all means, continue pouring the tea. Far be
it from me, or anyone else, to tell you that your cup is only so big.

- - -

See also:

- "Bit Literacy," my book on these concepts:
http://bitliteracy.com/

- Barry Schwartz interviewed in Good Experience (Jan. 20, 2005):
http://www.goodexperience.com/blog/archives/000106.php

- My interview on TomPeters.com about bit literacy:
http://www.tompeters.com/cool_friends/content.php?note=009830.php

- Speaking invites:
http://brightsightgroup.com/speakerDetails.asp?speaker=109

- - -

Post a comment here:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/009910.php#comments

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(Revisiting the idea of) Facilitating customer experience
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Some current talk online about designers-as-facilitators reminds
me of a column I wrote four years ago, "Usability Professionals
Must Disappear": http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/000022.php

An excerpt:

> In short, a good user experience practitioner is a facilitator -
> someone who quietly (having disappeared) guides the process,
> allowing knowledge to emerge, from users and the company alike.
> Instead of coming in with the answers, or the framework, or (my
> personal favorite) "the 200 rules of user experience design," they
> should come in with their auditory organs turned up to eleven.
> Listening.
>
> As facilitators, truly caring about the organization and how it
> can best serve its customers, practitioners will then be more
> valued.

A lot of user-experience folk disliked the column, I think in part
because of the title, but today the ideas might not be considered so
radical. We're finally beginning to see a more strategic outlook in
the field - focused on organizations, not tactical rules; and on
business performance, not academic usability tactics. This benefits
everyone.

At Creative Good ( http://creativegood.com ) we've told our clients
for a long time that while we bring past learnings to our work,
we're not coming in as gurus. Rather, we're facilitating a process
for companies to learn what their customer experience is, and how to
improve it.

- - -

Post a comment here:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/009908.php#comments

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For more reading...
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Ariel's empty inbox (submit a screenshot of your own!)...
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/009914.php

A hundred and one summer recipes - and a question about what *you*
can boil down into a sentence or two - post a comment:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/009911.php

Announcing two Gootodo improvements: attachments and redating.
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/009905.php

A book-naming trend? (of one-word titles)
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/009906.php

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Job Opening: The Library Corp. (Senior Web UI & Web Designer)
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Company: The Library Corporation
Title: Senior Web UI and Web Designer
Location: Inwood, WV

Your Responsibilities: Develop web design strategies for a
successful software company starting with a large scale web
application. Also, define User Interface and Navigation. We will pay
very competitively for a top notch designer.

Please email resume, site, and URLs to mmoran@tlcdelivers.com

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Job Opening: Creative Good (Customer Experience Analyst)
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Company: Creative Good
Title: Customer Experience Analyst
Location: New York City

This is a full-time, entry-level position intended for recent
college grads. Creative Good is looking for a customer experience
analyst in the NYC area. Experience in business analysis or
marketing strategy is a plus. Nice-to-haves: Art History major;
holistic, strategic thinking; having read "Bit Literacy."

More info, apply: http://creativegood.com/team/job0307.html

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Job Opening: Libertas Group (Interactive Creative Director)
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Company: Libertas Group
Title: Interactive Creative Director
Location: Miami or L.A.

Certain work holds an iconic place in the heart. We deliver the big
idea and solutions that inspire response. Our staff is vibrant, our
culture one of respect, and our product exceptional. Are you looking
to inspire creativity? To drive creative strategy? Lead an agency?
Has your work won awards?

Then please e-mail your resume to cpulleyblank@libertasgroup.com

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Job Opening: REALTOR.org (Manager, User Experience)
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Company: National Association of REALTORS®/REALTOR® Magazine Online
Title: Manager, User Experience/REALTOR.org
Location: Chicago, IL

The Publications dept. seeks a Manager of User Experience to develop
& maintain the user exp strategy for REALTOR.org. Oversee the site's
current & evolving info architecture. Improve content findability &
accessibility. Serve as the user advocate in site decisions. Oversee
user research, search analytics.

Submit resume & cover letter stating salary to HRJob04@realtors.org

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All recent job openings...
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See all recent job openings here:
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/cat_job_openings.php

Post a job opening:
https://www.goodexperience.com/jobpost

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This Is Broken update
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Broken: Windows Recycling Bin message. I called this "gloriously
bad user experience from Microsoft" and there are 11 comments from
readers - all in agreement, for once :)
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/009909.php

Broken: Target exit sign
http://goodexperience.com/blog/archives/009904.php

Post your own in the the Flickr "this is broken" pool:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/65611869@N00/

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Fun Stuff
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Bizarre and fun video:
http://stashmedia.tv/feed/Fido_Tog.mov

World's fastest banjo player:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbNlqXHVyoM

Build an atom:
http://keithcom.com/atoms/index.php

A sunset somewhere in the world:
http://www.eternalsunset.net/

My online game picks:
http://goodexperience.com/games

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Until next time,

- Mark Hurst
mark@goodexperience.com

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contact info
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ABOUT MARK HURST
Mark Hurst, founder of Creative Good and Good Experience, has been
advocating for good experiences for over ten years. He also writes
this newsletter.

Mark Hurst's bio: http://goodexperience.com/about/mark.php
Contact Mark Hurst: mark@goodexperience.com

Mark's book, "Bit Literacy," solves information & e-mail overload:
http://bitliteracy.com

Gel (Good Experience Live) conference:
http://gelconference.com

Uncle Mark 2007 Gift Guide and Almanac:
http://unclemark.org/unclemark2007.pdf

If you want customer experience consulting, contact Creative Good:
http://creativegood.com

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