Information Anxiety

by Richard Saul Wurman

Book Overview

In this breakthrough book, Richard Saul Wurman explains why the information explosion has backfired, leaving us stranded between mere facts and real understanding. In Information Anxiety, he presents... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385243944
• ISBN13: 9780385243940
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 356 Pages
• Weight: 1.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Every business owner should read this book

Ten years ago RSW said that data was the source of "Information Anxiety"; he went on to explain ways for people to put data into meaningful displays. His premise is that the display of data helps you convey a message. Take a look at the millions of advertisements that still don't understand his simple suggestions. I cringe when I see the updates or designs people do to magazines or newspapers that put more pictures, less data and even less "information." Doesn't anybody read books like IA2 to understand what the brain does and how it sorts data to come to choices? In the beginning Wired followed his rules and they blew away the competition, then they got smart and followed the formula of the oldline magazines, then nearly bankrupt they got sold. RSW set up the guidelines for magazines of the future. This is a great book and if a business owner really wanted their advertising and their collateral material to produce results they would use the tools in the book to check and see if they have broken the rules of cutting through the noise.Buy this book, follow the rules, win more business.

The 'Answer' to 'Out of Print'

Some readers may not understand that this was the FIRST book that gave those of us with information architecture 'leanings' evidence to support our posture. While Lou and Peter's book is always referred to as a 'primer' for the field of Information Architecture that evolved out of the internet boom, there are key concepts in Richard's book that are imperative for 'thinking'.I recall a review of his first publication where the reader lamented that Richard told a great story but gave no concrete examples of what he was talking about. I was screaming mentally, "But his entire book is a living example of his concepts." I kept writing his office, begging them to issue a reprint because I had already lost 2 copies of the first edition book and feared loaning out the last one I had scrounged up. That copy is my classic...whenever I have time I run through the highlights and notes I have throughout the book. I will often find concepts that I consider part of my core beliefs and am reminded where I originally adopted them from.As for one of the recent reviews 'dissing' this book, making reference to Nathan Shedroff's writings, perhaps the contributor didn't realize where Nathan, who used to work "for" Richard, originally got his endoctrination!

Dimensions of a Cyber "Renaissance" or "Enlightenment"

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 Ma

The real problem is a malinformation explosion

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.

Information Anxiety is a MUST read

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