Beyond the Button

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen, has a great post this month on when you should write a short or long web article. Taking his advice I will wrap this up quickly. If you have something simple to say, use as few words as possible. People don't get anything out of more length per se (with a few exceptions).

I think these same principles can be doubly applied to media interactives in museums where the impulse to browse is almost forced upon people. Since people don't get anything out of longer explanation we should avoid them where not completely necessary. Layering small chunks of information on various pages and and even exhibit components is a great way to recognize people's tendency to browse.