Michael Kanellos from CNet talks about how people get frustrated and are unable to make decsisions when they are presented with too many options. He's got a great statistic about how when you add 10 choices to a 401k plan the number of people who participate actually drops by 2 percent.
I think that he reaches the wrong conclusion though. It's not about providing less choices to people but about providing better guidance. People like choices. People do need to be educated and guided about what choices are best for them though.
There was a great book called Word of Mouse that some of the folks who involved with Net Perceptions wrote. They have a great overview of the different types of recommendations and guidance that sites can give people to help them make decisions. Worth a read.
People definitely like choice, but often the psychological cost of too much choice is too taxing for people to deal with. The 401k stat above is only one example.
Barry Schwartz wrote a book called "The Paradox of Choice" that explores this topic in a very engaging way. I highly recommend it. It's here:
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060005688?v=glance
You can also get a podcast of Schwartz here (he's super entertaining to listen to):
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail252.html
Kareem
Posted by: kareem | March 21, 2006 at 01:45 PM