Exformation may seem a strange word in the Information Society. As you probably already know the problem today is not to find information, it is to get rid of all the information you don't need. This is just what exformation is all about when it's adapted to IT.

Information Technology is likely to be the only area today that has actually increased work load. Not because it was faster to use a pen and paper and search the archives, but because more information is stored and different systems store it in different ways.

Exformation is not only getting rid of information, it is also vital that the reader have the necessary background and preferences to understand the message. Not only that, we must also consider the task to perform. The viewer is put in a very central place.

Let us give you an example. We have a company manufacturing life boats. The board of directors need information like how many boats are sold, what's the budgeted revenue etc. The rest is exformated. Accounting will need more specified information about each transaction, while the technicians will need information about different materials and construction details. It is seldom any need for the other departements information, and it can correctly implemented be reduced to the exact needs for the moment.

The other factor is current situation. A shipwrecked employee from accounting, who cannot find information about how to use the boat is not very satisfied... The other way around a technician aware of possible economic difficulties may put some extra effort into less expensive construction details.

In not so many words - exformation is the technique to give each viewer the information he/she needs at the right moment and in a form the viewer understands. This is the most essential part in all IT-solutions, and so often forgotten...