There is a curve that seems to apply to all software over time:
When you start you almost certainly don’t have enough features (and if you do, you probably launched too late)
So, adding features initially makes things easier for users – you’re able to support more user requirements with fewer work arounds. The software continues to get better and better.
But, eventually features start to weigh the application down – more navigation, more options, more for new users to learn – until eventually you end up no better than a product with too few features.
What can you do?
It’s pretty simple. You need to either know when to stop adding features (which in practice probably means having a better system for prioritising your development work).
Or, failing that, an anti-gravity machine.
Excellent point. This is exactly what has happened to FaceBook–too many features and apps, alientating more and more new users.
I actually disagree….
I think the curve is only a partial curve….. and as time goes on it goes back up again, and then takes a fall again. probablly in an ever ongoing cycle.
I think its the NOOBs who do a project that grows then gets messy and then live with the mess just haven’t had enough time to rework features into a coherent whole. Some people don’t get a chance to do this because the whole thing kind of falls apart. But if you get past that, I think you get a whole new level of usability and capability.
[...] while your idea is growing ever bigger, your prospects of success are shrinking just as quickly. Rowan’s diagram explains this phenomenon [...]