Ms. Kott shared three things to keep in mind when sharing information online.
First, Internet users are foragers. Most people go to Google first—and this is true in any part of the world. They type in a search term, go to a webpage, get what they need, and come back to Google. The theory to describe this is information foraging. Information foraging explains why people don’t scroll mindlessly or click on every single link: because they attempt to maximize their rate of gain and get as much relevant information in as little time as possible.
Second, online content has become really comprehensive. News articles now come with supplemental content like videos or photo galleries, and there has been an explosion of interactive content. In their everyday lives, people are looking at highly engaging, thorough content, and they bring those expectations with them to work. When those expectations aren’t met, they are more likely to leave a webpage quickly, without fully processing its information.
Third, when you’re designing content online, it’s vital to think about people as people, not as their title or profession. It’s very natural, especially when communicating something technical like family planning data, to think of our peers in their professional capacity. That thinking brings some assumptions along with it—that we can use highly technical language, that we can present a lot of information and they will be able to process it, and that they want all that information. But that’s not the case. People working in FP/RH are bombarded with information every day, and we’re exhausted from pandemic-related burdens in our work and personal lives. These factors have a real impact on how much we’re able to do and focus on in a workday. And you absolutely need to account for that as you share information online.