With the increasing disclosure of public information and government data through information and communication technologies, along with the considerable privately generated data now available online, individuals have access to a huge volume of information. This “disintermediation” of (i.e., greater direct access to) public information may improve transparency and facilitate citizen engagement, but it may also overwhelm citizens not only with too much information but also by requiring them to take responsibility for gathering, assembling, and processing information. Despite the importance of effective information processing to successful use of available information, existing studies have not yet fully integrated this consideration into research on citizen use of e-government and open government data. Based on information processing theory—according to which individuals have a finite information processing capacity, which is affected not only by the quantity and quality of information but also by one's preferences for how information is presented—this study examined the effects of information presentation type (infographic versus text) on perceived information overload, along with the consequent effect of information overload on perceived website usefulness. We also investigated whether individual information processing propensity (visual or verbal) moderated the effect of information presentation type on perceived information overload. Our results showed that textual information tended to cause greater information overload, especially for those with a propensity for visual information processing, and that higher information overload was associated with a lower perception of website usefulness. Moreover, individual information propensity moderated the effect of information type on perceived information overload; people with visual information processing propensity were more strongly affected by the presentation of textual information. We discuss the implications of our findings for improving the communication of policy information through government websites.

随着通过信息和通信技术对公共信息和政府数据的披露越来越多，再加上现在可以在线获得的大量私人生成的数据，个人可以访问大量信息。这种对公共信息的“去中介化”（即，直接获取更多信息）可以提高透明度并促进公民参与，但它不仅会给公民带来太多信息，而且还要求他们承担收集，组装和处理的责任，从而使公民不堪重负。信息。尽管有效的信息处理对于成功使用现有信息非常重要，但现有研究尚未将这种考虑因素完全纳入公民对电子政务使用和开放政府数据的研究中。基于信息处理理论-根据哪些人具有有限的信息处理能力，该能力不仅受信息的数量和质量的影响，而且还受个人对信息呈现方式的偏好的影响-这项研究研究了信息呈现类型的影响（信息图与文字），以及信息超载对感知的网站有用性的后续影响。我们还调查了个人信息处理倾向（视觉或口头）是否缓和了信息呈现类型对感知信息过载的影响。我们的结果表明，文字信息往往会导致更大的信息过载，特别是对于那些倾向于视觉信息处理的人而言，并且较高的信息过载与对网站有用性的较低感知有关。此外，个人信息倾向减轻了信息类型对感知信息超载的影响。具有视觉信息处理倾向的人受文本信息呈现的影响更大。我们讨论了我们的发现对改善政府网站上政策信息的交流的意义。