If we've done our job well in the exploration phase of the design process, we'll have at least ten good concepts for solutions that we might pursue to address the gap in the user experience. The thing is, we don't want ten artifacts. We in general want the best artifact, we want to find the best design solution. And that leads us to the third phase in our design process, selecting a plan. You've probably heard people refer to left-brained and right-brained. In fact, it annoys me a little bit that those labels are used. It's like type one or type two error, or theory X and theory Y. I never know which is which. These labels themselves are not very mnemonic. But left brain refers to the category of reasoning that tends to involve logic, deduction, and analysis, which supposedly occurs in the left hemisphere of the brain. And right brain refers to the category of reasoning that involves creative thought, intuition, And expansive thinking. I believe the best designers are equally adept at right-brain thinking and left-brain thinking, They know when to use each. In much of what we've done so far in the design process, we've used our right brain, That is, we've, we've intuitively observed, customers are users in their use environment, in order to understand latent needs. We've explored the landscape, of possibilities in order to identify some amazing possibilities that we've never thought of before. All of that is right brain thinking. But it's now time to get serious and it's time to, to use our left brain. That is it's time to apply logic and analysis in order to select a plan. Now, I'm going to teach you a very left-brain method called the concept selection matrix. But before I do that, I want to just give you the rationale or the desirable characteristics for any selection method. The first motive or the first desirable characteristic of selection method is that you get the right answer. Now, if you are designing something for yourself. That's not so hard. You just pick the solution concept that you like the best. But when you are designing for a large group of users, knowing which concept will best close the gap is often not so intuitive. And so you'll benefit from some structured thinking in which you evaluate the alternatives with respect to the key user needs and with respect to the economics of delivering the artifact. The second desirable characteristic of a selection method is that it can communicate the logic behind the decision. Now, again if you design for yourself that's not so important but, most of us work within organizations companies schools government units other kinds of, of organizations and it's important to communicate the logic behind a particular design decision to our boss, to the sources of financing, to our clients, or to other stakeholders in the process. So, a good method will allow us to readily communicate why we made the decision we did. And then, the last desirable characteristic of a selection method is that its self documenting. I often find that months or years after I've made a design decision, something will change, Some new information will arise, or a competitive action will occur. And I'll try to understand why it was I made a particular design decision. And having the concept selection matrix at hand is a way to provide a reference as to what our thinking was back when we made the design decision. So, I'm going to teach the method, a, the concept selection matrix in the next module.