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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?

2 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. 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).