Tom Foremski from the Silicon Valley Watcher recently blogged about curation vs aggregation on the internet.  He defines curation “as a person, or a group of people, engaged in choosing and presenting a collection of things related to a specific topic and context”, and aggregation as something that “employs software (algorithms) and machines (servers) to assemble a collection of things related to a specific topic and context”.     

Foremski contends that even though they’re less scalable, curated products will eventually win out over aggregated products because “the human act of curation adds a layer of value that aggregation alone cannot provide.”  

We agree. 

At Bespokeable, we put humans front and center to form the core of our product - a marketplace (for things custom-made) that is driven by recommendations and personal opinions from the sellers.  Recommendations are especially needed with custom goods, because most buyers simply don’t know what they need or want from the near bottomless pool of options to choose from. We think the best way to discover what would make you look better is to just hear it from the designers themselves. 

Algorithms might be able to help you find a similar fabric, or tell you that people who like fabric x also like fabric y, but only a human can possibly makes sense of all the different features that make a person unique, and be able to know exactly what will optimize that person’s appearance.

Even more important though is the emotion factor that only humans can serve. Designers design from the heart.  Their products are more often than not a product of how they feel at that particular time. For that very same muse, they may design something completely different on some other day depending on how they feel.  

Algorithms will always be needed for their computing prowess. However, nothing can trump the rational, yet irrational human spirit in making a recommendation for another human.