Creating Passionate Users: Featuritis vs. the Happy User Peak

26 Feb 18

bugmenot69

usability & accessibility webdev

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linekin

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Brian Anderson

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James Mansfield

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Ethan Brown

Give users what they actually want, not what they say they want. And whatever you do, don't give them new features just because your competitors have them!

software business

02 Sep 09

Emran Hasan

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06 May 09

Alex Horstmann

Give users what they actually want, not what they say they want. And whatever you do, don't give them new features just because your competitors have them!

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20 Jul 08

Chee Kin Lim

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Martin Knoller Stocker

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C ZaC

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Joel Liu

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21 Sep 07

Beth Raney

Featuritis vs. the Happy User Peak (a graph!)
"Be the "I Rule" product, not the "This thing I bought does everything, but I suck!" product."

software development feature

13 Mar 07

eyal matsliah

about:usermanuals about:writing design interactivity marketing usability userinterface

* Stereos (or other consumer electronics and appliances) that use "modal" controls so that you cannot obviously figure out how to make it do the most BASIC FRICKIN' THINGS ; (
Be the "I Rule" product, not the "This thing I bought does everything, but I suck!" product.

And I'll be your happy user : )

Posted by Kathy Sierra on June 12, 2005 | Permalink
Be brave. And besides, continuing to pile on new features eventually leads to an endless downhill slide toward poor usability and maintenance. A negative spiral of incremental improvements. Fighting and clawing for market share by competing solely on features is an unhealthy, unsustainable, and unfun way to live.
Our readers put their trust in us to work hard at finding and focusing on what really matters, and brutally cutting the cognitive overload that comes with the rest, and we try not to let them down.
Give users what they actually want, not what they say they want. And whatever you do, don't give them new features just because your competitors have them!
In a lot of markets, it's gotten so bad out there that simply being usable is enough to make a product truly remarkable.
What if instead of adding new features, a company concentrated on making the service or product much easier to use? Or making it much easier to access the advanced features it already has, but that few can master?
Screw 'em. We believe that those providing the products and services that give the most "I Rule" experiences, without tipping too far over the Happy User Peak, will be the most successful. (Obviously there are a ton of exceptions, and yes of course I'm overgeneralizing.)
So again, why does this happen so often?

Our guess is fear.

Fear of being perceived as having fewer features than your competitors. Fear that you won't be viewed as complete. Fear that people are making purchase decisions off of a checklist, and that he who has the most features wins (or at the least, that he who has the fewest features definitely loses). Fear of losing key clients who say, "If you don't add THIS... I'll have to go elsewhere."
This seems to happen most when the publisher/editor/author didn't want to commit with both feet to being a learning book vs. a reference book, and tried to do both. When I see marketing copy for a learning book that says, "And you'll refer to it again and again after you finish..." or, "You'll want to keep it close even when you're done." red flags start flying. Reference books are for referring to (like the wonderful Nutshell series). Learning books are for reading once, maybe with some extra review, and a refresh if you don't use what you learned right away, but that's about it.
* Technical books that try to be "complete" but don't provide the focus and filtering and weighting the reader was hoping for.
* Software that keeps adding feature upon feature until the simple things you used to do are no longer simple, and the whole thing feels overwhelming.
Ten years ago, if you'd told me I'd one day need a manual to use my car radio, that would have been inconceivable. All I want to do is find a frickin' radio station!
Most of you here know that Don Norman talked about this forever in the classic The Design of Everyday Things, but why didn't the designers and manufacturers listen?
Featuritis vs. the Happy User Peak