Examining Choice Overload across Single-list and Multi-list User Interfaces

Abstract

Recommender systems are prone to triggering choice overload among users due to the typically large set sizes. Various applications have been developed that aim to overcome this through interface design, notably by so-called multi-list recommender systems. However, to what extent such user interface design actually reduces choice overload compared to single-list interfaces has yet to be examined. In a user study (𝑁 = 150), we compared three common user interfaces (UIs) in the context of recipe recommendation: a single-list UI, a grid UI and a multi-list UI. Whereas earlier studies found differences in choice difficulty and choice satisfaction across grid-based and multi-list recommender interfaces, we observed no such differences, as the explanations were possibly not sufficiently helpful. Instead, we found that grid-based UIs and multi-list UIs had a higher perceived ease of use than a single-list UI, which in turn reduced choice difficulty. The benefits of such interfaces, thus, may lie in the organization of the UI, at least in the recipe domain.