Abstract | ||
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: Data overload is a generic and tremendously difficult problem that has only grown with each new wave of technological capabilities.
As a generic and persistent problem, three observations are in need of explanation: Why is data overload so difficult to address?
Why has each wave of technology exacerbated, rather than resolved, data overload? How are people, as adaptive responsible
agents in context, able to cope with the challenge of data overload? In this paper, first we examine three different characterisations
that have been offered to capture the nature of the data overload problem and how they lead to different proposed solutions.
As a result, we propose that (a) data overload is difficult because of the context sensitivity problem – meaning lies, not
in data, but in relationships of data to interests and expectations and (b) new waves of technology exacerbate data overload
when they ignore or try to finesse context sensitivity. The paper then summarises the mechanisms of human perception and cognition
that enable people to focus on the relevant subset of the available data despite the fact that what is interesting depends
on context. By focusing attention on the root issues that make data overload a difficult problem and on people’s fundamental
competence, we have identified a set of constraints that all potential solutions must meet. Notable among these constraints
is the idea that organisation precedes selectivity. These constraints point toward regions of the solution space that have
been little explored. In order to place data in context, designers need to display data in a conceptual space that depicts
the relationships, events and contrasts that are informative in a field of practice. |
Year | DOI | Venue |
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2002 | 10.1007/s101110200002 | Cognition, Technology & Work |
Keywords | Field | DocType |
Key words: Agent – Alarm – Context – Data overload – Information Visualisation – Workload | Focusing attention,Information overload,Cognitive systems,Simulation,Psychology,Conceptual space,Cognition,Accident prevention,Perception | Journal |
Volume | Issue | Citations |
4 | 1 | 44 |
PageRank | References | Authors |
2.83 | 16 | 3 |
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
---|---|---|---|
D. Woods | 1 | 1287 | 229.36 |
Emily S. Patterson | 2 | 231 | 27.89 |
Emilie M. Roth | 3 | 166 | 20.64 |