The 2nd Jan “Two Hands are a lot” blog post has some truly radical ideas inside it. But well enough hidden that journalists seem to have missed them.
The big radical ideas lie in the synthesis of ideas for presenting and processing information. The implications for marketing agencies are enormous. It doesn’t matter that Dominic Cummings’ wasn’t thinking about marketing.
Most marketing reporting uses the web and modern technology but with a paper based mindset. The charts and tables could be printed.
I believe there is a substantial problem with “information density”. But not in the “static” way many characterise this.
For instance – when examining reports marketing decision makers probably want both the overview AND the detail. But the detail only needs to be shown if and where the user wants it. Paper can’t present information “if” the user wants it. It is either printed or not.
Computer software ought to offer dynamic variation. But few reporting systems seem to adopt more than a rudimentary answer at present. Many approaches assume people are power or novice users, managers or analysts. And assume the overview vs detail is a dichotomy that has a single answer for each person.
Drop downs aren’t the answer. They have their uses – but it’s just like giving the user several different sheets of paper and assuming they’ll do the shuffling.
I’ve got ideas for changing this. And smart marketeers would want to be part of this conversation.