We Really, Really Like Feature Bloat
Here’s a test: let’s say you’re comparing microwaves. You want a good one, but you don’t know anything about the brands. So you go visit the appliance store and see two models – one that’s basic looking and one with lots of buttons and displays. Which one do you like better?
Chances are, you’ll like the microwave with all the extra buttons. People like features, and despite calls for “simplicity in design” we actually choose features over simplicity all the time. For example, I recently had my car in for repairs, and during that time I drove a loaner car that was one year newer. The newer loaner had some nice features that I now really miss on my older, simpler car. I love features.
Yet when we talk about usability, we always talk about “simplicity.” The mantra of good design is to say or do exactly enough, but no more. Don’t over complicate things. We do this because we believe that simplicity is the way to drive adoption, in large part because Apple preaches it with their incredibly successful products. But the usability experts may be wrong, and that’s a problem.
Design expert Don Norman addressed that very issue in an article he wrote for CACM in 2007 after wondering why anyone would buy a $250 toaster with complex motors, displays, and buttons:
Why do we deliberately build things that confuse the people who use them?
Answer: Because the people want the features. Because simplicity is a myth whose time has past, if it ever existed.
TechCrunch asked the same question in a recent article about bloatware on new mobile phones:
The fact of the matter is that most people get infatuated with the idea of “more”. Right or wrong, most people will not believe that a new device or piece of software is better than an old version unless it has more features.
Even Apple, everyone’s favorite creator of simple, has built some incredibly sophisticated and often times unusable products. iTunes, for example, has grown so complex that it has begun receiving usability criticism. But Apple has made an entire business out of selling products that have enough complexity in them to make other problems disappear. iTunes took over the market because it had a dozen features, along with the iPod, that paradoxically added up to a simpler user experience.
And that’s the real problem. We love feature bloat, especially when we think it could make our lives easier. This is the biggest challenge for usability design and testing.
By the way, did you know we’ve written a whitepaper on usability testing? Check it out.
[...] Champion recently wrote We Really, Really Like Feature Bloat (UTest) where he talks about how we want the coolest features over simplicity. When a customer [...]