So why do businesses continue to add features that are useful to a small number of people and ignored by others? And is there a better way to design the product?
Cliff Kuang, a tech industry designer and author of a book on the history of product design, has picked out the three criminals behind the ever-growing features. First, the company adds an option. This is to help sell the product as new and exciting. Second, products with millions of users need to appeal to people with very different needs. And — this is stinging — we look great, but we’re crazy about options that aren’t available or aren’t used.
Kuan described this third element as “users can’t tell” hey, that looks good “and” hey, I need it. “
If he feels better, Kuan also said he was guilty of this. He was amazed at Tesla’s ability to automate parallel parking. “The first time I used it, it was cool,” he said. “And I never used it again.”
Engineers often complain that they are in a situation where they cannot win in product design. Avid fans demand more and more options, which often make no sense to the average person. (This phenomenon is often ridiculed as “bloated software,” like bloated software.) This is because the technology is for 1% of digital die hard, not for other products. This is one of the reasons I often feel it.
But if a company tries to reduce an option that is rarely used, or changes something that people are familiar with, some users will hate it. Everyone has an opinion. Former Microsoft executive Stephen Sinovsky said joke Revising widely used software like Windows and Microsoft Office was like ordering pizza from a billion people.
April, technical writer Clive Thompson Made a provocative proposal To combat the temptation to pack more features into existing technology: just say no.
Thompson, a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, said companies need to pre-determine the set of features they want to work on and stop when they reach it.
“Feature creep is real and destroys software every year,” he told me, citing Instagram as a product that he believes gets worse with more options to add.
Of course, you can’t keep a product frozen in the past.And automatically some features like them Notify emergency services after a traffic accident, May be worth it even if it is used infrequently. Also, it is unpredictable which add-ons will be useful to the masses.
Kuan said the best tech products are changing little by little, moving users towards the future that creators have imagined.He, Airbnb, websites and apps, to people Explore different types of homes Without worrying about your destination or travel date.
To get out of the bloatware trap, Kuang said, “We’re going back and working from the future we’re trying to create.”
This week’s tips
How to prepare for a change to your phone
Whether or not all the features are useful, you will soon be using the updated software for your mobile phone. Brian X. ChenThe New York Times Consumer Technology Columnist will teach you how to prepare for this change.
In this week’s column, we’ve covered the changes that will be made to smartphones this fall with the next operating system updates from Apple and Google.
How do you need to prepare? First, we recommend that you do not install an early test or beta version of the currently available software. These unfinished versions of the operating system have not yet been checked for defects.
However, when the new operating system is complete, here’s how to make your phone compatible with the new operating system:
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Back up phone data To another device such as a computer, or to a cloud storage service if you are subscribed. This will prevent disasters in the unlikely event of a problem updating your phone software.
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Turn off automatic updates. Your phone’s settings have the option to automatically install software updates after bedtime. We recommend disabling this. When your operating system arrives in the fall, take a wait-and-check approach to assess what others are saying online about the major bugs you may have encountered. New products are usually incomplete on the first day. If you are confident that your new operating system will not ruin your phone, install the new operating system manually.
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Take advantage of the opportunity to Some digital spring cleaning.. Delete apps that you no longer use and files that you no longer need. In some cases, the new operating system occupies more space than the old operating system, so it is advisable to perform a purge in advance to get a fresh start.
Before going …
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Disputed plans to revitalize US chip manufacturing: An unlikely group of millionaires, including long-time Democratic donors and Trump supporters, wants $ 1 billion from Congress for a nonprofit investment fund to expand computer chip manufacturing in the United States. is. My colleague Ephrat Livni writes that the group’s unusual proposals are split in Washington.
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His TikTok post claimed that he was a jury trial in a recent trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. He wasn’t, CNN I will explainAnd it was another example of an often misleading online enthusiast over the case.
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What are kids apps doing? Washington Post columnist I have written More than two-thirds of the top 1,000 children’s apps send personal information to the advertising industry. (A subscription may be required.)
Embrace this
meet Goose named Duck-Duck And the man who became the adoptive parent of the goose.
