Why to choose Choosle for your next decision.
by brunof, last changed on
by sys_filer
| Brain Decision | Pen & Paper | Encoded Text Document | Spreadsheet 2 | Decision Making Tool 3 | Choosle 1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Try to keep everything in your mind. |  Similar to an encoded text document, however, just using a simple pen and paper. |  List the arguments in a text document. For instance, notepad, MS Word or Google Docs. |  Collect the arguments in a spreadsheet. For instance, MS Excel or Google Spreadsheets. |  Use a specialized tool for your decision. |  The future version of the Web application you are working with. | |
| Remember A decision can evolve over several weeks or even mounts. How easy is it to continue, where you've left off? | Remember It's easy to forget options, arguments or ratings while capturing, analyzing and compare options. | Remember Ability to go back anytime and look at your notes. | Remember Ability to go back anytime and look at your notes. | Remember Ability to go back anytime and look at your notes. | Remember Ability to go back anytime and look at your notes. | Remember Ability to go back anytime and look at your notes. |
| Costs Costs in terms of money. | Costs $1000 for your photographic memory training courses ;) | Costs Free | Costs No additional costs. | Costs No additional costs. | Costs Products and licenses from $200 to $1200. | Costs Free |
| Flexible Are you free to modify the content, formatting and ratings in any way you like? | Flexible What ever you can think of. Rating via good feeling. | Flexible Free text, free formatting, the ability to change however you like especially if you use a pencil instead of a pen... | Flexible Free text, free formatting, free encoding for rating. | Flexible Free text, free formatting within table cells, free encoding for rating. | Flexible Depends on the problem domain. | Flexible Free text, independent rating. |
| Simple How simple is it to use? How easy can you read, interpret and modify the results? | Simple Simply think about options and arguments. More difficult to keep all of them in mind, rate and score them. | Simple Takes time to write out and come up with rating system. Also difficult to modify/edit results besides just starting over. | Simple Known text editor, processor. Difficult to format, layout, align. Hard to read, compare rankings. | Simple Known spreadsheet processor (Excel, Calc,...). Need for a suitable table layout, automatic rating formulas,.... | Simple New tool with many algorithms to learn and understand. Some "necessary" input parameters are overkill in many usages. | Simple New tool. Simply enter text and drag sliders to rate. |
| Completeness Support for helping you to consider all the important factors? | Completeness Depends on user's expertise. Support only via external resources. | Completeness No support included. User managed examples, external resources. | Completeness No support included. User managed examples, external resources. | Completeness No support included. User managed examples, external resources. | Completeness Optimized for specific use cases, a lot of expert knowledge can be applied to optimize the scope of arguments. | Completeness Starting examples, suggestions from existing Choosles and team work can help you to consider all the relevant options and arguments. |
| Objectivity How "correct", how objective will your decision be? | Objectivity Depends on you as one person, with attitudes, mood swings and good/bad experiences. So the decision will be biased with the arguments you "want" to remember. | Objectivity Depends on you as one person, with attitudes, mood swings and good/bad experiences. You can consult your earlier, stored arguments and ratings. | Objectivity Depends on you as one person, with attitudes, mood swings and good/bad experiences. You can consult your earlier, stored arguments and ratings. | Objectivity Depends on you as one person, with attitudes, mood swings and good/bad experiences. With a better layout overview you can consult others to bring in a fresh perspective. | Objectivity Different support for a detailed analysis of options and arguments to generate "correct" rating values. Input values might still be subjective. | Objectivity No direct, explicit support to improve objectivity. Shared decisions are more likely to be objective. Compare your ratings with the average of others. |
| Order Can you reorder options and factors to compare them more easily? | Order Automatically ordered mentally by importance, significance. | Order Cannot rearrange options and factors. Will just have to start over on another piece of paper. | Order Reorder arguments and options by selecting the according text lines and move them via drag&drop or cut&paste. | Order Reorder arguments and options via table row drag&drop, cut&paste. | Order Most tools should allow to reorder options and arguments. | Order Reorder arguments and options via drag&drop. |
| Research Where do you get all the data from? | Research All data must be researched manually. | Research All data must be researched manually. | Research All data must be researched manually. | Research All data must be researched manually. | Research The defined structure of arguments can allow the system to connect to different external resources to automatically fill in many values. | Research Some values of certain arguments can be found automatically on the internet or in special databases. [not yet implemented] |
| Rating How easily can you rate an argument? | Rating Individual forms of a more "implicit" rating. Emotions could change, influence the rating unwillingly. | Rating Can just write a check mark or star for higher rated arguments. | Rating Encoded, mostly with a +/- number or words like "very good", "good", "bad", "very bad". | Rating Encoded, mostly with a +/- number or words like "very good", "good", "bad", "very bad". | Rating Different forms of value inputs for analysis algorithms or direct ratings. Values might be automatically derived from argument values. | Rating Visual slider for red/green background. 5-star quick rating. Number value rating from -100 to +100. Extract numbers automatically from argument texts. |
| Ranking How to determine the "winner" option? | Ranking Manual ranking with the ratings remembered. Difficult to really separate the different ratings. Often the ratings of the most memorable argument set the ranking. | Ranking Manual ranking. | Ranking Manual ranking with the encoded rating values. | Ranking Automatic ranking via formulas with the rating values as inputs. | Ranking Automatic ranking with the rating values. | Ranking Automatic ranking with the rating values. Visual marking of the winner option. |
| Play Play around with ratings and factor weights, to see what really matters. | Play Rethink changing ratings is even more difficult, than scoring a fixed set of ratings. | Play Every change of a rating leads to a manual recalculation of the scoring values. | Play Every change of a rating leads to a manual recalculation of the scoring values. | Play Play with your ratings values to see the formulas changing the scores until your favorite option wins. | Play Because of the extensive analysis process to rate arguments, there is little demand for playing with input values. So it's little likely for a tool to offer live-scoring. | Play Play with your ratings to see the scores for the options changing until your favorite one wins. Temporarily ignore a factor. |
| Available Can I access and modify the information at any time from anywhere? | Available Hopefully your brain is very close to you at any time and everywhere. | Available Need to carry around the paper(s). | Available Online document processor. | Available Online spreadsheet processor. | Available Most of them are offline desktop applications. | Available Online Web Application. |
| Compare Can you compare the arguments for specific options side by side? | Compare After building a context by recalling specific arguments for each option, these arguments can be easily compared. | Compare Can draw a spreadsheet and compare the the options side by side. | Compare Difficult to compare arguments, since simple lines of text do not easily allow a side-by-side layout. | Compare Compare specific arguments of all the options side by side in the table view. Choose options to compare by moving columns. | Compare Most of the tools should allow to compare arguments, maybe not always directly side by side. | Compare Compare specific arguments of all the options side by side in the aligned table view (matrix). |
| Presentation A visual representation to compare options in the context of a factor or to read the arguments for one specific option. | Presentation No visual representation. | Presentation Personal hand writing, styles of formatting and personal drawings. | Presentation Collection of text lines. Maybe headlines to separate options. Table layout with tabs possible, but expensive to use and maintain. | Presentation Table view only. Possible diagram with rating values. | Presentation Domain specific views and reports. | Presentation Switch between a compact overview [not yet implemented] and a detailed table view (matrix). |
| Explain How to explain your decision to others. | Explain Well, you can talk about it. | Explain Send a paper copy. Scan and send. Not professionally looking. | Explain Send or print document. | Explain Send or print spreadsheet. | Explain Send or print domain specific reports. | Explain Explain, justify your decision visually by sending a Choosle link. |
| Export Export in formats being used in other contexts (presentations, documentations, external applications). | Export No automatic export. | Export No automatic export. | Export Special parser, converter needed to decode text lines and ratings into another format. | Export Export tables as formatted text documents or embed them in presentations. | Export Most of the tools should offer several exporting formats. | Export Export your Choosles as a text documents [only XML so far], spreadsheets or embed them in presentations [not yet implemented]. |
| Share Share a decision to share the responsibility for it's consequences. 4 eyes see more than 2. | Share Meet at a location. Discuss and debate. Make sure to talk about the same thing! | Share Send by mail. Share paper copies. Difficult to organize. | Share File sharing. Controlled workflow. Online document. Special encoding per user rating. | Share File sharing. Controlled workflow. Online spreadsheet. Separate column per user rating. | Share File sharing. Controlled workflow. Only one rating. | Share Collect options and arguments together in a community. Every member can rate the arguments personally to see the average ratings change. |
| Comments Can readers comment the different elements? | Comments Via external communication (talks, EMail,...). | Comments Via external communication (talks, EMail,...). | Comments Via specially encoded text. | Comments In separate table cells. | Comments Via external communication (talks, EMail,...). | Comments Managed user comments and discussions. |
| Evolution In a changing environment you might need to adapt your decisions over time. | Evolution Difficult to remember "older" decisions in order to change them. Even more difficult to remember a detailed change history. | Evolution Must start over otherwise sheet of paper gets messy. | Evolution Simple to change the content at any time. History is managed externally (file per version, version control system). | Evolution Simple to change the content at any time. History is managed externally (file per version, version control system). | Evolution Should be simple to change most values and recalculate the scores. History is managed externally (file per version, version control system). | Evolution Simple to change the content at any time. Change history (who, when, what) is kept automatically [not yet implemented]. |
| Factor Hierarchy Divide and conquer helps you to manage large sets of factors. | Factor Hierarchy Think of the arguments in a hierarchy. Makes it even more difficult to keep in control of the rating and ranking. | Factor Hierarchy Possible to visually outline a hierarchy. | Factor Hierarchy Possible to arrange the text lines in a hierarchy. Difficult to keep the overview. | Factor Hierarchy Possible to use multiple columns to arrange the factors hierarchically. Formulas to group weights and rankings. | Factor Hierarchy Support found in some tools. | Factor Hierarchy not yet implemented |
| Attachments File attachments to provide further information about similar comparisons, specific options or arguments. | Attachments Separate files. | Attachments Separate files | Attachments Separate files. | Attachments Separate files. | Attachments Separate files. | Attachments Managed attachments [not yet implemented]. Links to external resources. |
| Recall Ability to recall all the details about a certain decision from the past. | Recall Difficult to remember the exact reasons for an old decision. | Recall Papers of your older decisions can get lost easily. | Recall Stored as local or shared files. | Recall Stored as local or shared files. | Recall Mostly stored as local files. | Recall Old Choosles are stored automatically and can be searched for. |