01.30.2013

Bored?

Those who oversee the creation of online communication (websites, intranet sites, social media campaigns, etc.), will likely find intriguing a recent article in the Boston Globe (the article was reprinted January 27 in The Dallas Morning News).

Headlined, "Feeling bored?" the article cites extensive research that seems to be finding a direct connection between boredom and attention.

Here's the interesting rub: it appears we can get bored if our attention is not stimulated ... AND if it is over-stimulated.

This passage in the article especially caught my ... um ... attention: "When a task is so simple that it doesn't require focused attention ... we often can't find a suitable point of engagement ... on the other hand, trying to process an overwhelming environment with a limited amount of attention can also make us feel bored ... when we are in a stimulation-intense environment, we are more likely to experience things as unsatisfying because our attention is being pulled in different directions."

Increasingly, I encounter clients who want the content on their online sites to be simple and spare ... pared of any interesting detail or colorful language. "Let's just take that (sentence/paragraph) completely out," they will say, unaware that in doing so, they are making the site less stimulating ... and according to the research ... more boring.

At the other extreme, you have those Web designers/developers who believe that what will people engaged on a site are multiple content boxes, each with its own logo/image (some of which are blinking or twirling). However, the research noted above suggests that approach is as likely to bore people as the very pedestrian site containing "just the facts, ma'am."

The research also suggests that posting on Facebook – or tweeting – 10 times a day turns us into just as boring an online personality as the person who only shows up once every month or two.

This research appears to reinforce what I have said for some time: that if an organization does not want its websites, blogs or social media streams to be considered boring, it must be sure both the amount and quality of the content within them are (like the infamous soup in Goldilocks and the Three Bears) neither too cold nor too hot ... but just right.

Jeff Herrington, President
Jeff Herrington Communications

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