Here’s a famous story among persuasion researchers and Malcolm Gladwell fans:

When a researcher offered shoppers 24 types of jam, many customers stopped by for a sample, but only 3% made a purchase. But when the researcher offered only six kinds, 30% of shoppers ended up buying jam.

“When people had too many choices, they just walked away,” says Sheena Iyengar, the researcher and author of The Art of Choosing.

Iyengar, a business professor at Columbia University, studies how people make decisions. When it comes to choice, her research shows again and again, less is almost always more.

Avoid overwhelming people.

People are also overwhelmed by the amount of information it takes to make decisions about:

401(k) plans. In a study for Vanguard, Iyengar found that for every 10 funds a company added to its options, the number of employees enrolling dropped by 2%. With two options, 75% of employees participated; when there were 59 funds, only 60% enrolled.

“If it’s a lot of work to choose among the funds, many people will postpone the decision and never sign up,” she says.

Medicare plans. When seniors had to choose a Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2006, they were overwhelmed by dozens of similar options. In the end, some 10% of seniors didn’t enroll by the deadline, even though it meant they’d have to pay extra to enroll late.

The problem, Iyengar says: “The program designers focused primarily on giving people quantity but not on quality.”

Health care plans. One of the most complex decisions we ask consumers to make is to choose among health insurance plans.

It’s not uncommon for consumers to have to compare more than 15 plans on each of 10 to 12 factors. And integrating different types of information and different types of variables makes decision-making even harder, according to researchers (Payne, Bettman and Johnson, 1993; Slovic, 1995).

Making matters worse, this information often:

• Includes technical terms and complex ideas
• Requires the reader to weigh factors based on their own values, preferences and needs
• Calls for readers to also consider coverage, benefits and costs

“More information doesn’t always improve decision-making; in fact, it can undermine it.”

— Judith H. Hibbard and Ellen Peters, researchers

For instance, if one hospital has high consumer satisfaction scores but average measures of safety and effectiveness, and another is highly effective but ranks low in satisfaction and safety, how do consumers weigh these factors in their choices?

What’s wrong with choice?

Making a choice takes three mental tasks, Iyengar says:

• Figuring out what you want
• Understanding the options
• Making trade-offs

This exercise becomes more complex as the choices multiply.

It would seem that the more information we give people, the better off they’d be.

But “having an abundance of information does not always translate into” informed choices, write researchers Judith H. Hibbard and Ellen Peters. “The amount of information may exceed human information processing skills.”

And when that happens, people shut down. They may simplify the decision by relying on others’ advice, by ignoring some of the information or by basing their decisions on the wrong things. Or they may not make a decision at all (Hibbard, Slovic and Jewett, 1997).

4 ways to reduce option overload.

So how can you make it easier for your readers to make a decision — instead of giving up and going home? Here are four ways to do that:

1. Reduce the number of options. People can keep track of five to nine choices, according to 60 years of brain research. Increase that to 20 or 30 options or more, and people become paralyzed or frustrated.

2. Think in decision layers. Try the three-by-three rule: Offer a matrix of three categories, each with three options. That’s nine options, but presented in a way that’s easier to think through.

Instead of deciding between nine options, readers make two decisions between three options each.

3. Present information clearly. “How information is presented may be just as influential as what information is presented,” Hibbard and Peters write.

To help the reader understand:

• Reduce cognitive effort. Reduce the amount of information you present through decision-support tools, an information intermediary or visual displays of quantifiable information.
• Bring the experience to life. Show people what the decision will mean to them in real life through narratives, vivid details and tailoring.
• Reframe the data. Help readers see the significance of the information by highlighting, framing and otherwise presenting the data.

“Most presentations of comparative information are based on the assumption that consumers know what is important to them and where their self-interest lies,” Hibbard and Peters write. “These assumptions are faulty.”

4. Make it vivid. Show, don’t tell. Instead of asking how big a risk readers can tolerate, give them a picture of that risk.

Literally.

When Iyengar asked study participants whether they’d like a free ticket to see amazing scenery but with a steep drop-off from a cliff, 90% took the free ticket. But when she showed pictures of that steep drop-off, only 50% accepted the ticket.

“When there’s a vivid scenario — say, a picture of money leaving your wallet, not just a number — people understand the consequences better than when they are presented with abstract notion of risk,” Iyengar says. “Casinos know this, which is why they have you gamble with chips, not actual money.”

Other benefits of short form digital content

Short form digital content also makes messages easier to read, more efficient to read and easier to understand and remember. And it helps readers make better decisions.

How long should your content really be?

_____

Sources:

Judith H. Hibbard and Ellen Peters, “Supporting Informed Consumer Health Care Decisions: Data Presentation Approaches that Facilitate the Use of Information in Choice,” Annual Review of Public Health, 2003, Vol. 24, pp. 413-33

Penelope Wang, “How to make better investment choices,” Money, June 2, 2010

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Writers measure copy in words, inches or pages. Readers use a different measure: time.

So instead of using writer-centric measures, think like your reader. Measure your story length in time, not space.

1. Establish estimated reading time.

Before you hit the keyboard, determine how much time you’d expect readers to spend reading each piece you write or assign.

Readers’ average reading speed is about 200 words per minute, estimates Roy Peter Clark, author of How to Write Short.

So if you are aiming for a two-minute piece, you’ll want to limit it to 400 words.

Readers might not be as interested as you wish. In one London study, for instance, employees spent only about two minutes reading their own CEO’s message. The longest message — Lloyd’s of London’s, at 872 words — got less reading time than the shorter two, from GE and Heinz, at about half that length.

2. Measure estimated reading time.

Now that you have your target, you need to stay on track. During the editing process, divide your total word count by 200 to find the average reading time for your piece.

So if your piece is 400 words long, it will take two minutes to read.

3. Reduce estimated reading time.

You might find that it makes sense to cut your piece to save your readers time.

4. Report estimated reading time.

You might be able to encourage readership by letting readers know at the beginning of each piece how long it should take them to read it. So tell ’em how long it’s going to take to tell ’em.

If your piece is short enough, reporting estimated reading time may increase readership. Readers who had planned to put your piece in the pile of things “to read later” (aka the rest stop on the way to the trash can) may say, “Geesh, surely I can spend two minutes on this now.”

Estimated reading time for this article: 2 minutes.

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Thank you, David Letterman.

The Top 10 list rules the web — or at least, Buzzfeed. The number of Buzzfeed listicles with the numeral 10 in the headline outranked the next most popular numeral (15) by 142%, according to research by Noah Veltman and Brian Abelson, two Knight-Mozilla fellows. Fiddle around with their addictive “listogram” for details.

But just because Buzzfeed writers like the number 10 doesn’t make that the best number for your listicle. So how many items should you include? Here are eight thoughts about that:

1. Consider including more items.

Abelson found a slight correlation between Buzzfeed list length and the number of tweets the list gets: The longer the list, the more tweets.

But don’t forget: Tweeting doesn’t mean reading.

“We’ve found effectively no correlation between social shares and people actually reading,” writes Tony Haile, CEO of Chartbeat, which measures traffic for sites like Upworthy.

2. But don’t include too many.

Hundreds of items might overwhelm potential readers. “6 steps to 6-pack abs”? Maybe. 66 steps? Forget it!

And no matter what the headline says, there really aren’t “99 Things You Need To Know About Franz Ferdinand Before The 100th Anniversary Of His Assassination.”

3. And don’t include too few.

When it comes to lists, remember what you learned at Three Dog Night camp:

One is the loneliest number. Two can be as bad as one. It’s the loneliest number since the number one

Why?

• One item is an item. So no “Top 1 Reason Why ‘The X-Factor’ Is Going To Be Better Than ‘The Voice’.”
• Two items are a couple. So no “2 Excellent Parodies Of Amanda Palmer’s ‘A Poem For Dzhokhar’.”
• It takes three items to make a list. “3 Classy Ways To Get Drunk On St. Patrick’s Day“? Sure!

Besides, posts with headlines promoting seven or more items outperformed those with six or fewer, according to an internal study of HubSpot’s blog. While HubSpot still posts pieces with six or fewer items, writes Pamela Vaughan, HubSpot’s lead blog strategist, the inbound marketing experts don’t promote that quantity in the headline.

4. Embrace your oddness.

Oddly, odd numbers on magazine coverlines sell better than even ones, according to Folio:. Bloggers have taken note.

“It’s long been a superstition in the business — for years — that an odd number will do better than an even number,” BuzzFeed’s Jack Shepherd told the folks at Neiman Lab.

So 7 Steps may be more effective than 10 Tips.

5. Or maybe 10 is the magic number?

Lists with 10 items received the most social shares, according to research by BuzzSumo. The provider of content marketing analytics itself analyzed the number of shares of more than 100 million articles.

Top 10 lists had four times the number of social shares — 10,621 on average — than the second most popular list number: 23.

Runners up: 16 and 24.

6. Steer clear of 20.

“Yeah, I think probably people shy away from 20,” Shepherd told Nieman Labs. “Twenty feels real weird.”

7. But do use a number.

Numbers sell, because they indicate quantity and value in the information.

“Honestly,” Shepherd said, “I’ve often made posts where the post didn’t need a number, and then I’ll throw a number into the headline — just because people like that more.”

We know, Mr. Shepherd. We know.

8. Or don’t.

The best length for your list: the number of items your research turns up.

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How long is too long for the mobile screen?

“Only the biggest/most complex stories should go above 600 words,” counsels the BBC in its guide to writing news for the mobile screen. “But it is worth remembering that even a 500-word story looks long on mobile.”

“Even a 500-word story looks long on mobile.”

— BBC

That’s because the small screen makes columns narrower, so the story carries on for screen after screen after screen.

That doesn’t mean that people won’t read a longer piece on their phones.

“I might read a 24,000-word article that really interests me” on my phone.

— BBC mobile editor Nathalie Malinarich

“I might read a 24,000-word article that really interests me,” says BBC mobile editor Nathalie Malinarich, who reads most of her news on her phone.

1. Divide and conquer. Defer secondary content to secondary mobile screens.
2. Show what’s below the fold. Add a menu to let readers know what they can’t see on the first screen.
3. Excise the blah-blah text. Readers have no patience for filler on the phone.
4. Be concise and precise. When in doubt, leave it out.

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When Lynn Wylie, aka Best Sister Ever, sent me an Unfancy blog post arguing that all you need to look great every day is a capsule wardrobe of 37 items per season, I scoffed.

After all, Dear Reader, Aunt Ann is a maximalist. I love Jessica Harper’s quote in Pennies From Heaven: “It’s not the money; it’s the stuff!” My jewelry box is seven stories high. When someone asked my husband about my hobbies, he replied, “Ann’s sport is dressing for dinner.”

Focus on what goes in, not what goes out.

However, Dear Reader, Aunt Ann is also OCD. I love a place for everything and everything in its place. So when I read how Unfancy suggests you get to 37 garments a season, I was intrigued:

1. Empty your closet.
2. Review each item in your wardrobe.
3. Return to your closet only the garments you absolutely love.

In decades of closet-cleaning-as-entertainment, this is by far the best approach I’ve found. I now have all of the clothes I want to wear, and none of the ones I don’t. Plus, my closet is now uncluttered and gorgeous. Shelves once stuffed with T-shirts and yoga pants now display glittering evening bags and bracelets.

Spring-clean your copy.

So I wondered: Can we adapt this approach to cutting clutter from our copy? Then I remembered: We already have!

This is the approach editing genius George Stenitzer recommends in “An Act of Commission.” When editing, George uses a highlighter to identify what stays in the message instead of a red pen to identify what goes out.

It seems like a simple shift, but it works. So give it a go. If your message winds up as clean and dazzling as my closet, your readers will love you for it.

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