I’m searching for the correct math category for a problem so I can hire a developer, but need to know the general approach (I hope math exchange is an appropriate forum for this question)
This question is for a type of ranking problem. For example:
Say a user is looking for a nutritionist that meets certain criteria.
They want a nutritionist that knows gluten-free diets, does virtual visits and is under $100. Each nutritionist that matches some criteria would get a score. The more matches the higher the score.
Some categories are ordinal. Like a user cares more about virtual visits than knowledge of gluten-free diets.
But, the score should also have an absolute number. So, if a match only had one of the three matched criteria, it would be below a threshold score for a “good match”.
If it was entirely ordinal, I think I could just use linear algebra with constrained optimization to automatically weight different criteria for a total score that was always the same (say, out of 100).
Users are prompted to tell the system which variables are most important and what combination of factors are deal breakers for a good match.
I’ve tried looking online for different approaches to ranking, user preferences, weighting results, but they’re all quite technical and don’t fit what I’m looking for.
Can anyone point me to resources to describe this type of math/computing problem or let me know the general category of what it might be called?
Appreciate any leads.
Thank you