Information is currency. It denotes power and control and people treat it as such. The more you know and the less other people do the stronger you are.
What people forget, is that not all information is valuable when not shared. Information is also a lubricant, that reduces friction. Sharing information* is more valuable than concealing it. It many case and far more than the general web exhibits.
You need to ask a question in web design. And the question needs to be "What is the question someone visiting this site is asking themselves".
Quite often the question people are asking is, "How much is this going to cost me". Not, "How much is the vat, the postage, the packaging, and the service charge for little green elves to kiss it". But many sites (airlines especially) hide and conceal this information from you. The 'buisness' purpose of this is assuming people get to the end, and then have invested so much time doing this that they will buy it anyway, even if it costs more**. And often this is true, although it leaves your customers feeling ripped off and begrudging. That's not a good way of running a business.
Here is a example in the real world how concealing information removes value.
These are taken from the lift doors in my flat block. Picture (a) is on the ground floor (Floor 1) where everyone comes in, and on floors 2 through 6 where everyone lives. Picture (b) is in the basement or garage. Most of the traffic is through floor 1, with floor 0 being secondary and floors 2-6 being even divided.
Lift details like this are in most buildings, with the floor number only being shown on the ground floor.
For the life of me I can't figure out why they don't tell you on all floors what floor the lift is on. I suspect this is a legacy from early lifts when the manual mechanism on the ground floor could tell you where the lift was, but this was harder to duplicate on upper floors. But with today's electronics this can hardly be an issue, nor could a few LCD panels cost much more compared to the cost of the lift mechanism and structure itself.
There is absolutely no value in concealing this information. Unless the worry is that someone might see the lift is far away and decides to walk instead. Which can hardly be a bad thing, unless lift companies don't see themselves as a service but rather as waging a war on steps. Who knows.
It's all kinds of crazy.
* Actually having just read this post on horsepigcow, it's not just information, but the right information. Which is why you have to ask yourself what your customers are asking themselves.
** Incidentally British Airways has now started including all fares (taxes, airport duty, and green elves kisses in the charge you see for each leg when booking, which makes it far easier to use and why I tend to look at them for flights first.
1. Gordon
As you say, information is valuable if delivered when and where people need it. Anticipating what, when and where is bloody hard though, hence why so many “information carriers/deliverers” fail.
2. Adrian
Agreed. Although I’m not sure what you mean by an information carrier/deliver.
I’m also saying many people conceal information intentionally thinking it will give them an upper hand. This IMvHO fails. Hiding information as a practice instead of being open and transparent is not good design.
Nor is it good buisness.
Nor is it a good way of leading your personal life.
Obviously YMMV between design, business and personal.
3. The B
What about concealing information by using acronyms that not everyone knows, huh?! Doesn’t that count too?
4. Adrian
IMvHO = In My Very Humble Opinion
YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary.
Don’t winge because you CBATG.
:)
(and not it doesn’t count :) because I’m always right. But fair point)
5. Destructor
Nor is it a good way of leading your personal life.
Good way to play poker, though.
6. Gert
I agree in general but the real power is knowing what to share and what to reveal.
MMR. Let’s pretend for the sake of argument that it was ‘fact’ that triple jabs caused bubonic plague and instant alcoholism or whatever, and wasn’t some dodgy drug company sponsored non-peer reviewed nonsense.
The parents who campaigned against triple-jab should have shut the fuck up. They should have opted for no-jab or the single jabs with their inherent risk of non follow-up but campaigned for everybody else to get triple jabbed, so that their children would have benefitted from the herd immunity of triple-jabs.
Oh, knowledge. Hmm. You didn’t say “ignorant uninformed mumble-jumble is power”…
7. Matt
I fucking hate it when the lift indicator thingy doesn’t show what floor the lift is on.
Or when the thingy in the train station that shows when the next train is due isn’t working.
Or any situation where I don’t know how long I’ll be waiting for something.
8. The B
ah, but I DID google. But because I had to, you left me feeling, what was it again…? Oh yes. Ripped off and begrudging.
9. Adrian
But B, could you get ripped off buy a nicer guy? I think not.
10. Gordon
Information carrier/deliverer = anything that conveys information.
In your example those lift displays. Should they be consist and be the same on every single floor? Or should they be adapted to each floor to give a better “filter” of the available information.
Remember, too much information up front can confuse, so filtering becomes a crucial part of information flow. I’m not saying withhold anything but tailoring when the information is delivered can make a huge difference.
11. Adrian
So tailoring information to your audience is a very good idea, although a tough problem to solve when your audience has varying ability.
So I agree with that.
However deliberately hiding or obscuring information, not because you are tailoring it, but because you think you can get manipulate a situation better (No Sir, that’s the price without VAT, and pixie dust is additional) is a poor long term strategy, and fails. Car dealers are famed for this.
I think you and I are in agreement here, and your point on tailoring information appropriately is very much on the money. And the fact people/sites fail at this shows how difficult it is.
12. Gordon
Yes we are agreeing.
Heyyy, hang on!!!
Although I spend my working life tailoring information (all of it of course.. er.. the information, not all of my life.. although it kinda feels that way).
13. Destructor
Gordon, my work is blocking your site. I don’t know what to do, or why you’re suddenly on SmartFilter’s bad list. Go complain to them.
14. D
More useful data being blocked from those who need it most, eh Dan?
15. Destructor
I just can’t believe that Gordon is blacklisted as ‘chat’, whilst sevitzdotcom is still not flagged as ‘smut’.