Conceptual condensation: choice architechs

Every once in a while I run into a word or term that just seems to resonate with me, and not necessarily because I agree with the concept the words are trying to convey. Find the term for the first time will just make me sit back and think for a while. I've already blogged about one such term: cognitive heatsink.

I ran across another resonating term this afternoon. I've tracked Stephen Few's blog for a bit now. He has an opinionated view on data visualization. I don't know about you, but I like it when folks have a strong passion for something and can articulate that passion, especially if they are strong opinions weakly held. That is, no "staying the course" just because you decided on the course and no amount of new information can ever cause you to change your mind. Anyway, when I read his review of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness I ran into the term: "choice architects".

It's not clear if the term is pulled from the book itself, or is just Few's way of discussing the book, but it just seemed to strike a chord with me regardless of its source. I think that it has stuck with me because I'm finishing up the specification stage of a project where I feel that we've put quite a lot of effort into balancing the huge number of potential choices that could be made by the user against the much smaller number of choices that most folks will want to be able to make most of the time. So I'll be thinking of myself as a choice architect in future projects, and I hope that keeping this new concept in mind will make me better at what I do. That's one reason I'm blogging it today as I can go back later and see if this term really has stuck with me, or if it is just another passing fancy.

As this is the second time I've blogged about a term that rolled around for a while in my brain, I think that I'll make "conceptual condensation" a recurring post topic. If you have a term that just seems to stick with you for a while, even if you don't know why at the time you first ran into it, please post the term, your thoughts on why it resonates, and if appropriate include a link to where encountered the term.

Please note: I didn't say or mean condescension in the post title. :-)