(Image from the blog of Kevin Breuner.)

Last week, Des Traynor tweeted about a video from James Archer (from Forty) on the topic of decision modes. The video outlines the technique they use to design for different types of decision makers.

James’ idea is that people make decisions in different ways, and that different types of design, functionality and copy will help them decide.

Their approach reminds me of Personas: a great design tool that reminds you that not everyone thinks the same way, and not everyone thinks like you do.

Both are very useful tools in website design: understand your users, think about what they’re trying to do, and think about the different approaches they might take.

Design may not be the issue

But what if people can’t make decisions on your website, not because of the wrong design, content or functionality, but because your products are too complicated, named badly or there are too many to chose from?

This is a problem I have seen in many organisations: Telecommunications operators, Mobile operators and Financial services to name but a few.

For example: try choosing a mobile phone from the hundreds on offer – how do you work out which one is right for you? Then you need to choose a price plan to go with it (I often wonder if price plans even make sense to the person who designed them).

Great website design can do a lot to help alleviate complexity and help people decide, but sometimes, the problem isn’t a website design problem, it’s a product design problem.

The paradox of choice

The Paradox of Choice is an excellent example of one of these product design issues.

Companies often find themselves going down the path of a large number of similar but subtly different products – often without a clear strategy, and with the idea that providing more products will encourage more people to buy.

The Paradox of Choice says that giving people too many choices, paradoxically, produces paralysis rather than liberation.

In his TED talk from 2005, Barry Schwartz gives the following example:

“A colleague of mine got access to investment records from Vanguard, the gigantic mutual fund company of about a million employees, and about 2,000 different workplaces. And what she found is that for every 10 mutual funds the employer offered, rate of participation went down 2%. You offer 50 funds, 10% fewer employees participate than if you only offer 5. Why? Because with 50 funds to choose from, it’s so damn hard to decide which fund to choose, that you’ll just put it off till tomorrow. And then tomorrow, and then tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and of course tomorrow never comes.”

Are you paralzying your customers?

I cannot count the number of times I have left a shop or website because I was simply overwhelmed by the huge number of  options available. Most recently, I fled B&Q because I couldn’t chose a shade of white paint from the hundreds of “off-whites” on the shelf. If there was just one, I would have bought it and left happy.

By providing people with so many products to choose from, you are paralysing them rather than enabling them.

If you recognise your organisation here, stop and think – before you start fixing your website, make sure you have a clear product strategy, that you are not overwhelming your customers with choice and that your products are designed for your customer, not you, your organisation, or your CEO (unless, of course, you’re Apple).