Here are some things I believe you could improve about the implementation:
- There's no explanation behind the math of weighing that's done. "these scores were calculated based on your ratings for each choice and the weight you gave to each factor" isn't an explanation. "(e.g., "super important" has a weight of 4 and "not that important" has a weight of 1)" doesn't tell me why my choice of one "super important" and one "not that important" gives me the score of 14. Not knowing the math you're doing makes me not trust the result. I mean, I suspect you're doing "sum of factors multiplied by weights", but a non-math-savvy person may take a while to figure where the numbers come from.
- Too many pages. I know you're aiming for dead simple (technically) UI, but I think it would be better if I could enter choices and factors on the same page.
- I'd consider changing the factor score UI from:
- ( ) 4 (best)
- ( ) 3
- (x) 2
- ( ) 1 (worst)
into something inline, like: 4 - best: ( ) ( ) (x) ( ) :1 - worst
People are used into this into (that's how you rate stuff on most pages on the Internet), and it will cut your use of vertical space by at least a factor of 4, and also make it more readable - with this, it would be easier to compare between factors and across options.--
Quite honestly, a perfect incarnation of this idea to me would be a spreadsheet. This problem domain naturally fits into a shape like this:
What should I eat tonight?
| Option x Factor | Effort | Taste | Biosafety || SCORE |
| Factor weitht | 2 | 3 | 4 || |
|-------------------|--- ----|-------|-----------||-------|
| Turkey sandwich | 3 | 2 | 3 || 24 |
| Pizza (delivery) | 4 | 4 | 1 || 24 |
| Pizza (homemade) | 1 | 2 | 4 || 27 |
| Chicken soup | 2 | 3 | 4 || 29 | < PICK ME
A spreadsheet interface would make this tool much more convenient, and offers plenty of opportunities for futzing with UI (color coding, sliders for input, whatnot).Something I think you should consider for version 2.0 or as an alternative to test out. Hell, I think I'll make myself one in Excel right now.