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Comment by Pannoniae | Hacker News Reader

I find it sad how many websites, or even programs have atrociously low information density. In our quest to flat and minimalistic design™, we have managed to lower information density so much that very simple websites require lots of scrolling and menu-opening just to get simple information.

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I read a comment on a forum where the user had a job to audit google home voice command and search result alignment. Meaning, did the google home user get what they wanted or not. The forum user made a side comment on how a surprising number of people have horrible diction. Makes me think, maybe low information density is the optimal design for the majority of users.

Information density as we had it in the 90s and 2000s was far too dense, let's be real. We might have liked it, but most people essentially saw an insurmountable column of text and immediately keeled over, eyes glazed. The response to reduce information density in and of itself is reasonable.

What isn't reasonable is how low information density has gotten. Yes, information was too dense before, but now we have the opposite problem: It's not dense enough. There is a fine balance in density that designers seemingly can't seem to find.

Not too dense if you were used to read newspapers and magazines.

Or, ya know, books.

Magazines and newspapers interleaved articles and news; books were just either straight stories or short tale compilations, there were no short tales in the middle of a page or at the bottom/top/edge placed sides.

Maybe it's users intentionally simplifying their speech, because google doesn't understand more complex sentances.

I find myself doing this (and feeling stupid doing so) with my Amazon Echo Dots. They seem to understand very little, so I simplify and reduce like crazy. Nevertheless, lots of searches/commands go wrong.

Good example probably: I've tried to play music from German rap artist "Disarstar" which is pronounced like "disaster". I did not get Alexa to play music from this artist from Spotify, it only searched for "disaster" and played music it found... Not a good experience.

Hey. Disaster Area is the hottest band in the universe.

I'm trying to play music by disaster arena on Amazon Music now!

The band from the Gagrakacka Mind Zones, or the one from Berlin?

Sorry, I could not understand that.

There are at least two bands named Disaster Area. One 90s Skate Punk band from Berlin, Earth, and the famous one from the Gagrakacka Mind Zones, an unpopular and unpopulated region around 400 light years from the Soulianis/Rahm system in direction Betelgeuse.

My wife is one of these people - an artistic ADHD type whose brain bounces around in a very non-linear way. The commands she speaks to Google leave me completely confused.

Techmoan nailed it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvNPMlATA9g

Now I wonder if that's the reason we ended up with 7-inch smartphone displays.

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