Choice and Customization

I'm constantly surprised by the fact that TED isn't receiving more attention. It's a fantastic website that I've spent countless hours on and I'd recommend that everyone check it out at least once (be forewarned, it can get addicting- I spent 2 full reading days during finals distracting myself with these videos). This video is a brilliant TED lecture that I found a while back on Choice by Barry Schwartz.



Schwartz's delivery is just superb and really makes one ask questions about the current trend in design that's moving towards customization. The idea is to cater to individual tastes by allowing consumers to shape their own experiences. This puts users in the driver's seat and saves the designers the trouble of spending endless hours trying to determine what the average customer wants. Yet there is significant scientific evidence that too much choice makes us unhappy, as we struggle to make the right trade-offs and end up focusing on the happiness we could have had with one of the other choices. The result: either we are unhappy with our choice or we don't make a choice at all (a well known study conducted in a supermarket showed that increasing choice decreased sales of a particular item.)

The lesson here is that designers need to be careful in how many customizable features they incorporate into their products. Sure, they should offer some options for various types of people but they still need to do their homework and create products with optimal settings for different cohorts.

An Aside --> for people looking to get some more exposure to TED here's a good sample of the types of lectures you'll find. Enjoy!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66 - on rethinking our education systems

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/7 - simplicity sells.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/93 - ridiculous statistics.