ABSTRACT
This chapter presents preferential choices and decisions of computer users into the foreground as a topic in human–computer interaction (HCI). It provides access to the relevant psychological and HCI literature by summarizing key concepts and results and listing references. The chapter also provides a framework for thinking about how to help computer users make better preferential choices and decisions. It explains guidelines and design principles are rarely tailored explicitly to supporting preferential choices and decisions, and the related research hardly ever refers to the psychological literature on these topics. To be able to make a choice or decision, the chooser must normally in some sense be aware of the fact that a choice is available—though in extreme cases the awareness can be minimal, as when the choice is made out of habit or when it involves accepting the status quo or default option by doing nothing.
