"I want everything I can get may hands on, and the tighter the information is packed the better. Forget that stuff you hear about information overload. It's not in my vocabulary. I want it all. And not in a bunch of pretty looking, half-page reports either. All together, packed on one sheet that I can take into a meeting in case I need to look something up. And I need it every week," proclaims Stephen Links, vice president of a large, family-owned sausage company.
During an interview, Links has been grilling Paul Plishka, who is part of the systems analysis team that is busy designing a management information system for Links Meats. Although Paul is hesitant about what Links has told him, he proceeds to design a printed report that includes all of the important items the team has settled on during the analysis phase.
However, when a prototype of the new report, designed to his specifications, is handed to Stephen there appears to be a change of heart. Links says in no uncertain terms that he can't find what he needs.
"This stuff looks terrible. It looks like scraps. My kindergartner makes better reports in crayon. Look at this: It's all ground up together, I can't find anything. Where's the summary of the number of pork items sold in each outlet? Where is the total volume of items sold for all outlets? How about the information on our own shop downtown?" says Links, slicing at the report.
The report clearly needs to be redesigned. How should Paul Plishka go about designing a report that better suits Stephen Links? What tack can the take in suggesting more reports with a less-crowded format? Comment on the difficulty of implementing user suggestions that go against your design training. What are the tradeoffs involved (as far as information overload goes) in generating numerous reports versus generating one large report containing all information, such as Stephen wanted? Devise a heuristic concerning display of report information on one report versus generation of numerous reports.