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Paradox of Choice — Barry Schwartz Video

The most influential talk I have heard this year is Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice. I cannot recommend this talk enough, so I was thrilled to see that Barry did a similar talk that’s available on Google Video.

Google TechTalks April 27, 2006 Barry Schwartz Paradox of Choice (one hour video). If you’re in a hurry, you can skip the first 3 minutes to where his talk begins.

The content of his talk has really influenced my daily work in many ways. Especially because his points are directly translated to choices in user interfaces and how too many choices affects user experience.

More info:
My live notes from UI11 in October: Barry Schwartz: The Paradox of Choice. Also Luke Wroblewski made an excellent summary and later a comparison: The sweet spot on the curve.

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This entry was posted by Jesper Rønn-Jensen on Friday, November 24th, 2006 at 14:12 (GMT-1) and is filed under ui11, Usability, User experience, User Interface. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

7 Responses to “Paradox of Choice — Barry Schwartz Video”

  1. WebWord » Blog Archive » Paradox of Choice — Barry Schwartz Video Says:
    November 24th, 2006 at 14:19 (GMT-1)

    […] Jesper Rønn-Jensen has posted a video of Barry Schwartz giving a talk on the Paradox of Choice. He highly recommends it. That’s good enough for me. I’m going to watch it later this morning and you probably should watch it too. […]

  2. Jesper Rønn-Jensen Says:
    November 25th, 2006 at 13:28 (GMT-1)

    There are so many memorable quotes in his talk. Here is one

    Everything was better back when everything was worse!

    The truth in this is, that when everything was worse, peoples expectations were lower. So that it was possible occasionally to have an experience that exceeded expectations.

    In modern American society (at least among the affluent), I don’t think it’s possible for anything to happen that’s better than we expected to be.

    Because we expect everything to be perfect. And that’s the recipe for [at least] dissapointment if not abject misery. And all this choice is one reason why.

  3. justaddwater.dk | Windows Vista Off Button Usability Issues Says:
    November 26th, 2006 at 20:28 (GMT-1)

    […] Also, Joel references Barry Schwartz’ Paradox of Choice (that I wrote about yesterday), as a great reminder that less choice is more valuable. […]

  4. justaddwater.dk | More Features, Slower User Interface Says:
    December 5th, 2006 at 22:57 (GMT-1)

    […] More info: Paradox of Choice — Barry Schwartz Video […]

  5. Enkelhet säljer inte (men ju fler valmöjligheter, desto mindre får man gjort) - Backend Media Says:
    January 11th, 2007 at 15:52 (GMT-1)

    […] (Via anvandbart.se och justaddwater.dk) […]

  6. Jan Romme Says:
    August 23rd, 2007 at 23:21 (GMT-1)

    Hi Jesper. Thanks for the link – it’s a very interesting video and the conclusions are absolutely worth keeping in mind for the future.

  7. Grace Says:
    February 3rd, 2009 at 09:51 (GMT-1)

    Really interesting talk. Now I am having problems making any decisions knowing that any situation I am in is due to my choices and not because of the cards I was dealt. Having the power to choose is truly a double edged sword!