The appallingly bad photograph below was taken on my mobile phone about 15 years ago. It shows the menu layout from the Lisbon restaurant Chapito. I have never seen any other restaurant adopt such an ingenious format. You are given five set menus to choose from (white, yellow, orange, red and green) with a suggested wine for each. But you are perfectly free to substitute any dish from any other menu, or omit a course if you want. It is a brilliant example of what is sometimes called ‘choice architecture’.
This format makes it easier to choose what to eat. But it also helps you make a better choice. You have the same freedom as if you were to select from a conventional menu of five starters, main courses and puddings, but the format also contains an additional layer of information: it communicates what dishes (and wines) the chef believes complement each other best.
This is all to the good. Obviously we don’t want to be forced to eat something we hate; yet, in many cases, when otherwise indifferent, we would be happy to defer to the chef’s judgment. In a better world, all restaurant menus would be designed like this.
Seeing this, I have long wondered if there were other instances where we could dramatically improve decision-making by changing the presentation of information. For instance, would the property market be more effective if all estate agents were compelled to include some negative aspects to every property listing? A busy road, aircraft noise, a nuclear power station, being at the end of a long rutted track, not having a lift…?
This would save hours of time spent on wasted viewings. But it would also be more efficient, since people’s dislikes in housing vary much more widely than their likes.
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