I wish some software maker (and this includes web apps) would come out with an upgrade that made their application smaller, less feature-rich and more stable. The new iTunes has some really sweet functionality (I love browsing albums now), but I can’t upgrade it on my home media center because it’s also a resource hog.

On the other hand, I’d be ecstatic if they came out with a new version that had fewer features, looked smooth but without bells and whistles and was really fast, small and left a light footprint. I’d upgrade in a minute.

Usually when I install software, I choose the fewest possible number of options even if I paid for the most. Even though I don’t have the latest, greatest computers, they run fine because I’m smart about conserving their resources. My work computer is a three-year-old Dell laptop, and it is just great.

This is sort of a rambling post (it was conceived about two minutes ago), but it contains the seed of what will hopefully be a better post. Basically, improving a product doesn’t necessarily mean adding features. In fact, adding features frequently makes the product worse! They make it bigger, more cumbersome to operate and more difficult to use. And the features often contribute little in terms of the core product.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 16th, 2006 at 9:00 am and is filed under Blog, Design, Being Easy-to-Use. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.