Break large amounts of information into smaller pieces

Whether you're working with small, simple pieces of information or large, complex sets of information, breaking it into smaller groups will help your users absorb it easier. On the web, it's even more important because breaking information into chunks enables users to scan the content faster.

Whether you realize it or not, you are doing this every time you create a new web site. You create a site map and organize it by global and local navigation structures. You are breaking up the information into chunks that are easier to consume. You would never just create one huge page and put all of the content on that page would you? Admittedly, with a site map, there is a much higher level concept of grouping and organization that applies, but the need for that grouping and organization stems from the need to provide information in smaller chunks instead of one large conglomeration.

Take, for example, phone numbers. In the U.S. they are generally presented in 3 small chunks. Not only is easier to memorize 123-456-7890, but it is much easier to read and recognize than 1234567890.

Not only do the smaller pieces and arrangement immediately alert you that you are looking at a phone number, but it makes it easier to memorize because that's just how the human brain works.

This guideline applies whether your talking about a piece of information as small as a phone number or huge list of items. I was recently working on a project where a client wanted to present a list of 8,000 checkboxes to users for them to check their interests. The checkboxes were alphabetized, but that was it.

Just imagine for a moment that a step of a signup process was to scroll through a list of 8,000 checkboxes and check the ones that apply to you. You'd either backout of signing up or skip that step. Now imagine if those 8,000 checkboxes could be scaled back to about 40 checkboxes of approximately related categories. Which list would you rather be going through?

Ok, that was a little extreme, and should be obvious to anybody, but what about the more subtle examples. Say you are building a site and want to display a list of all the sites that you like to visit. You might think, "If I list 15 sites, my visitors will have plenty of choices, and there is a higher chance they will see something they like." In reality though, especially on the web, your visitors aren't going to "swim" through a normal list of 15 items. Yes, they might randomly click around, but the chances of them skimming the whole list are pretty slim.

This leaves you two choices. Either you scale back your list. Or you break the list up into smaller chunks. To help illustrate this, I've put together this quick little example of a plain list and a seperated list so that you can decide for yourself.

So next time you've got information to display, whether it's as small as a phone number in a user's account info or a really long list of content, or even your whole web site just remember that you should do everything in your power to break into smaller pieces. Add a couple little seperators or group the information in other ways so it's easy to get through. Your users might not realize it, but they'll love you for it.