Resource Overload

August 12, 2009 at 1:10 pm

I love Digg, Smashing Magazine, Vandelay Design, Tuts+, and many more sites that offer web design resources. They always have great articles on techniques and examples, and I learn something from them every day.

I only have one complaint about these sites, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing: I feel that they offer too much information in each post.

Take, for example, the front page of Digg’s Design section this morning:

The most popular articles are collections of 40 or 50 links. If each link is a tutorial, and I’m interested in just 10% of the links, it could take me a couple of days to run through them. Before I’m done with the tutorials from one collection, another site has posted another list of 40–50. It’s very easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information that is out there.

By comparison, take a look at A List Apart’s front page from the same day:

ALA’s format is a bit different; every few weeks they post 2 articles on design theory or technique. This approach is more relaxed; visitors can focus on articles at their leisure before new content is posted. When I read something on A List Apart, I can be sure that the content will be well-researched, well-edited, and very useful; I don’t get the same assurance from the 31^st tutorial in a list of 50.

So, how can you manage resource overload? You may be a better multitasker than me, so you might not even consider overload to be a problem. But if you do, here are some suggestions:

1. Keep a list of bookmarked tutorials/articles that you want to read. Check them off as you finish them, and don’t be afraid to prune the list if it gets too long.
2. When you find an interesting article, skim through it first to make sure it’s worth your time. If it doesn’t look like a high-quality resource, move on to something else.
3. Focus on sites that provide links to high-quality content. It’s easy to find sites that aggregate links simply to generate ad revenue; these sites usually have no quality control and aren’t that helpful.

And remember, you don’t have to learn everything when you see it. It’s more important to be aware of what’s out there so you can find it when you do need it.

Tags: resources, tutorials

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