The Paradox of Choice: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
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Re: The Paradox of Choice: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
#2And how does this apply to UI design? (What is the optimal number of ways to do something, 1, many, or something in between?)
Re: The Paradox of Choice: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
#3And how does this apply to UI design? (What is the optimal number of ways to do something, 1, many, or something in between?)
I think the choice is to give as few as possible. Not only will that help minimize development time, but you can always add based on what users demand.
Re: The Paradox of Choice: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
#4That experiment sounds too funny - I think I would panic, too, if doors suddenly started shrinking away.
Re: The Paradox of Choice: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
#5Jesus, this is so weird. I've been spending the last few weeks trying to articulate a theory about the illusion of choice being used as a framework for power (can you tell by that statement I haven't quite figured it out just yet?).
The discussion yesterday (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123081) about how to break out of paradigms and the Paradox of Choice are closely tied together with the idea I'm working on.
Re: The Paradox of Choice: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
#6And how does this apply to UI design? (What is the optimal number of ways to do something, 1, many, or something in between?)
The only thing you can really glean from this study regarding UI design will be that users can and will panic and reach for their back/undo buttons when options that were available to them previously are stripped away.
Re: The Paradox of Choice: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
#7There is a startup equivalent to destroying your retreat options (from "How not to die"):
I wish every startup we funded could appear in a Newsweek article describing them as the next generation of billionaires, because then none of them would be able to give up. The success rate would be 90%. I'm not kidding.
Re: The Paradox of Choice: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
#8Jesus, this is so weird. I've been spending the last few weeks trying to articulate a theory about the illusion of choice being used as a framework for power (can you tell by that statement I haven't quite figured it out just yet?). The discussion yesterday ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123081 ) about how to break out of paradigms and the Paradox of Choice are closely tied together with the idea I'm working o…
See also (where I got the more descriptive phrase in the title):
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/93
http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/006000...
To me, it also ties in with embodiment theory (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123243). We think we'd rather have the buffet, especially on first sight and with an empty stomach. But after gorging ourselves we realize we would have much rather had one really good dish than twenty mediocre ones.
Re: The Paradox of Choice: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
#9That experiment sounds too funny - I think I would panic, too, if doors suddenly started shrinking away.
Honestly, to me it's perfectly explained by embodiment theory. A disappearing door would seem to literally lock you in. Probably where their paradigm needs more testing. Would the results hold if instead giftboxes were shrinking away?
Re: The Paradox of Choice: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
#10Jesus, this is so weird. I've been spending the last few weeks trying to articulate a theory about the illusion of choice being used as a framework for power (can you tell by that statement I haven't quite figured it out just yet?). The discussion yesterday ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123081 ) about how to break out of paradigms and the Paradox of Choice are closely tied together with the idea I'm working o…
See also (where I got the more descriptive phrase in the title): http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/93 http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/006000... To me, it also ties in with embodiment theory ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123243 ). We think we'd rather have the buffet, especially on first sight and with an empty stomach. But after gorging ourselves we realize we would have much ra…
I agree with you. What I'm more interested in however, is who really gets to say what dishes are on the buffet? The cooks? The consumers? My gut tells me the consumers have a lot less choice than it appears.