The Paradox of Choice
Last night I watched Barry Schwartz’s TED Talk on The Paradox of Choice and found myself spellbound by his theory that having too much choice can lead to decision fatigue or decision paralysis. In one of the examples he mentioned, the employees of a company were asked to choose a retirement fund. When they were asked to choose from 10 funds, the rate of participation was high. But later when 40 additional funds were added to this list, the rate of participation dropped by 10%, suggesting that too much choice confuses or overwhelms people, and leads them to procrastinate.
“If you offer 50 funds to your employees, 10% fewer people participate than when you only offer 5. Why? Because with 50 funds to pick from it’s so damn hard to decide which fund to choose that you’ll inevitably put it off until tomorrow. And then, of course, tomorrow never dies.” — Barry Schwartz
Apple’s Formula
This got me thinking about Apple and its product line. They keep their product line tight. They don’t serve everyone, but they serve their target audience well. If you decide to pick an Apple product, you have a limited choice in hardware, but an expected overall level of quality. No matter where you go to buy an Apple product, you have a perceived idea of the product’s quality, price, and functionality. Whether you choose a MacBook Air vs a MacBook Pro; it isn’t a polarizing decision. The differences between them are minor and mostly defer to your personal preference. You can leave with either one and feel good about it.
PCs, on the other hand, are highly configurable and vary in price. If you know what you want, customizing and choosing a PC is a delight — allowing you to configure everything from the brand and resolution of your monitor, right down to the manufacturer of your processor and video card. Which is great if you know computer hardware, not so much if you don’t care. As a person who prefers using a workstation, I never really knew if I was getting a great deal or not, or whether the rig I had built was the absolute best. Did it really matter in the scheme of things? No. But it delayed how long it took for me to come to a decision, and when I did, I was never sure if I had made the absolute best choice. Apple, whether they know it or not, is capitalizing on this aspect of consumer psychology.
Other Formulae
Robin Dunbar suggested that there is a cognitive limit, approximately 150, of the number of relationships a person can have without sacrificing the quality of each relationship, or to be more specific, the ability to retain meaningful relationships.
This is also true of large companies as well. In his book ‘The Tipping Point’, Malcolm Gladwell explains a significant cultural change in new-age progressive companies. In one example, he talks about tech firm W. L. Gore & Associates, that found that their products and employees suffered when too many people were grouped in their factories. Their solution? They limited each unit to 150 people. Quality, productivity, and employee morale were all positively affected by this seemingly insignificant change.
Formulae & Psychology On The Web
So, are there any formulae dictating success on the web? If you’ve ever been to an e-commerce website and didn’t find what you were looking for, you know the answer to this question is a resounding, yes!
When we create a strategy and design for our client’s products, we do our R&D and try to understand the audience that our client is catering to. Knowing one’s audience is important because you must understand their needs, concerns and how they might feel when they use your app or visit your website. Some of the questions that you should ask are-
Does your company or organization market itself as a solution provider? If so, you may want to keep your content succinct, direct and easy to digest. Your audience may be people who are short on time, overwhelmed and frustrated with too much choice. You can beat your competitors by making the choice you offer the easiest one.
How much time are you willing to dedicate to updating your website? Give your audience a reason to come back. Update as often as possible but don’t overwhelm your consumers with too much content. Also, every piece of content that you write is content that will need to be maintained. Optics are important, and if your content rarely changes, your consumers and potential clients may perceive it negatively. If you don’t have a lot of time to update and maintain your content, keep it simple and automate as much as possible.
Are you an experience company? If you’re Apple, you’re an experience company. You make the hardware & software and merge them to form an experience that people want to pay for. As an experience company, you may want to sell the experience more than the individual parts. When people look at your website or app to help solve their problem, they will be glad to hear you cover the details in your approach.
