Paradox of Choice in the news again

One of the phenomenons that I’m very interested is the bug in the human psyche that results in the Paradox of Choice. Here’s a snippet from an article that showed up today about it:

So many choices: What to do? What to do? – Yahoo! News

Dozens of drug-prescription plans. More than 8,000 mutual funds. Fixed-rate, interest-only and option ARM mortgages. Regular 401(k) plans vs. Roth 401(k)s. Countless flavors of bank accounts.

Choice is a hallmark of capitalism, and most of us would agree that having too many choices is far better than having no choices. A growing body of research, though, shows Americans have become so besieged by choices that many feel paralyzed and confused. (Advice: Tips on making smart choices)

Having to choose one brand of jam out of 20 brands is one thing. But as Americans bear more responsibility for their own financial lives – from drug coverage to retirement savings – their decisions are looming larger than ever. At stake: their retirement, their health care and their children’s education.

The problem is that many of us aren’t up to making such decisions, says Barry Schwartz, a psychology professor at Swarthmore College and author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less.

Click on the link to read the article, let me know what you think!

Paradox of choices (and its cousin, analysis paralysis) comes to my mind a lot when designing software. It’s really easy to say “oh, just let the user decide in the options”, but the reality is that if you do that, you end up with a bazillion checkboxes across 51 tabs in a Preference dialog. And then that’s not useful or fun any more.

The hardest part about software is sometimes saying no.