OFFERING TOO MUCH CHOICE MAY OVERWHELM READERS

When you write pro­ce­dures, do you offer your read­ers more than one way to com­plete a task? Some writ­ers go to pains to explain one pro­ce­dure and then offer alter­na­tives. For example:

1. Click the Select button.
OR
From the Options menu, click Select.
OR
From the Actions sec­tion, click Select.

This approach is pret­ty com­mon and is con­sis­tent with the North Amer­i­can belief that choice is empow­er­ing and pro­vides greater satisfaction.

Author Bar­ry Schwartz dis­agrees. In his book the Para­dox of Choice, he con­tends that too much choice can make deci­sion-mak­ing a chal­lenge. In the long-term, he argues that this leads to deci­sion-mak­ing paral­y­sis, anx­i­ety, and stress. He even sug­gests that too many choic­es in one’s life can lead to clin­i­cal depression.

In just one exam­ple in the book, Schwartz doc­u­ments the bewil­der­ing options that he faced when vis­it­ing his local supermarket:

• Eighty vari­eties of pain relievers
• One hun­dred and six­teen types of skin cream
• Three hun­dred and six­ty types of con­di­tion­ers, sham­poos, gels, and mousse.
• Nine­ty types of cold reme­dies and decongestants
• Nine­ty-five snack options
• Six­ty-five box drinks
• And so on…

Schwartz points out that sev­er­al stud­ies have con­clud­ed that peo­ple are less sat­is­fied when faced with a large array of choic­es. Few­er options may actu­al­ly make one’s life easier.

In keep­ing with this research, as tech­ni­cal writ­ers, per­haps we should also stream­line the num­ber of choic­es we offer our users. It makes our lives eas­i­er and our read­ers could very well pre­fer the sim­pler, more stream­lined approach.