Features, Ease Of Use & Anti-gravity Machines

June 16, 2008

There is a curve that seems to apply to all software over time:

Features v Ease of Use
Features v Ease of Use

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.