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Are More Choices Really Better?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the how-to-hit-the-off-switch-let-me-count-the-ways dept.

A. Bosch writes to mention that Joel Spolsky of Fog Creek software has a commentary that examines the need for choices in software. From the article: "This highlights a style of software design shared by Microsoft and the open source movement, in both cases driven by a desire for consensus and for 'Making Everybody Happy,' but it's based on the misconceived notion that lots of choices make people happy, which we really need to rethink." With software steadily becoming more sophisticated, are more choices really necessarily better?

4 of 309 comments (clear)

  1. To clarify... by Otter · · Score: 4, Informative
    Since no one will bother to RTFA -- the "choices" he's criticizing aren't configuration choices (which is also a valid debate), but redundant (or basically redundant) ways of performing the same action via multiple routes.

    That said, the KDE and GNOME guys can return to ranting at each other...

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  2. Re:No by oneiros27 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Research has shown it to also hold true in sales.

    If you present users with too many choices, they're more likely to not buy anything. (one experiment was done by offering jams for sale, with either a limited number of choices, or a whole lot).

    The theory is that when people can't decide which is best, they'd prefer not to risk making a non-optimal choice, and so decide not to buy anything at all. (as opposed to software sales, which try to get people to not make the choice by buying the most expensive 'enterprise' version, so they don't have to decide which features they might need).

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    Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
  3. No. Scientific America on choice- Article by acomj · · Score: 3, Informative

    This scientic American Mind (an off shoot of scientific American Magazine) had an article by the Barry Schwartz, the man who's book if referenced in the article.

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    The Tyranny of Choice
    Logic suggests that having options allows people to select precisely what makes them happiest. But, as studies show, abundant choice often makes for misery

    http://www.sciammind.com/article.cfm?articleID=000 56941-1933-1196-906983414B7F0000&pageNumber=1

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  4. You'd be surprised by killmenow · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, more choice isn't always better. Sheena S. Iyengar is a professor at Columbia University who studies choice and in particular, challenges the notion that more choice is always better. A list of her publications is available on her site. For those who believe more choice is always better, I recommend you read a few. In fact, I recommend you start here (pdf).