Think of your audience when formatting information

This evening we learned our schedules for final examinations. As in previous years, the main part of the schedule lists the days and dates as rows of a table. Three columns of each row denote the different starting times for examination: 9 am, 2 pm and 6 pm. Within each box of the resulting matrix are the courses that have final examinations for those particular dates and times.

The school has been presenting information this way for years. It sounds reasonable when you first look at it or think about the schedule. However, think again.

To find the date and time of the examination for a particular course, a student might have to search every box of the schedule. Only after searching several boxes might the student find the required information. But then, that student has to do the same thing for the second course, and so on.

Think about it: does a student really care which examinations are on Monday, May 4 at 9 am? Probably not. The student cares only about those courses that that student is enrolled in. So, instead of organizing the examination schedule by day and time, why not organized it by course name instead? That way, students can look up their required information more quickly.

Think about your audience when you prepare a presentation. What's acceptable and useful to you may be less so for that audience.