Choice Overload
2020.2.13
We all might have experience of struggling to make a choice when
faced with many similar options. For instance, in shop websites, we may
over-think or over-analysis to pick one among a series of products but
end up buying nothing.To modify the experience, NN Group suggests that :
1.reduce offerings.
2.categorize offerings
3.highlight top offerings
4.help user compare offerings.
We could conclude from NN Group's tips that either reducing the number of items or providing more product information for customers to help them make decisions. However, for most companies, cutting the product line would be hard, thus adding specific information about products could be more applicable to reduce choice overload compared to the former.
For instance, we could add purchasing data about each item to help user decide, such as popularity, gender, age, so on and so forth.
Taking iPhone cases' color, for example, users may spend time choosing a color, some people who want to follow the trend may choose the best-seller, while someone who wants to be unique might buy the unpopular ones.
I've edited Apple Store pages to find out whether it is effective.
before
after
As is shown in the pictures above, extra data let users know about others' bahavior. And this may help people who have no idea make a decision easier because of conformity behavior.
However, it is still unknown whether the data would let those who have made a decision before going to the website become confused.