The brilliant yet sad concept of 'satisficing'

One highlight of Steve Krug's book on web design is the concept that consumers often make irrational or suboptimal choices. This happens across all channels -- from onsite retail to online web to kitchen-counter catalogs. The idea is based on 15 years of research by Gary Klein, who assessed pilots, fire fighters, and chess masters in how they make important decisions under pressure. The common thread in human decision-making is that we often don't make any comparisons at all -- we take the first choice that seems reasonable without waiting to weigh other options.

There's a term in economics for this called transaction utility, or the mental juice we get out of the purchase or decision transaction. Think about the last time you bought a leather coat. Man, that felt good swiping the card in the store. The true utility value of coat is actually much less to you, since you probably leave it hanging in your closet and wear it, say, once a month. But at the point of decision, you jumped.

The lesson for marketers designing communications, especially web sites, is that people are usually in a hurry -- and they don't face much of a penalty for choosing wrong. Their decision is not perfect, but it is enough to satisfice. So at your web site, they'll click on the first link that seems to answer their question. Make that link bigger and more intuitive, and you'll increase the odds they'll click. But don't get too clever -- if you give the user too many paths and choices, they are not going to evaluate them all.

It makes sense, if you think about it coldly. Many people have jobs that they don't love, lifestyles they didn't dream of, friends or marriages or hobbies that kind of satisfy but don't rock their world. Maybe it's human nature to settle. Web designers and product marketers should carefully map out the moment of truth, the touchpoint when consumers make the yes-no decision. Think about whether your "choice" is presented as a simple solution to meet -- mostly -- the consumer need. The simpler you make the choice, the more likely the consumer is to satisfice herself with you.