Feature Overload--Why are Consumer Electronics So Complicated?



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Summary:
'Hey, our cell phone takes pictures, sharpens knives, mows the lawn, pays your bills, steers your car, and cooks dinner, all by voice command!' Give us a break!

Unfortunately, the reason so many electronic products are stuffed with features is that it is relatively cheap to add features to them! It is called 'bloatware.' Programs that are overloaded with features, especially those not essential to the basic purpose for the software, carry this moniker.

When I was in the software industry and we were working on the next versions of software products, the programmers would sometimes come and say, 'Hey I can add such-and-such feature with only 100 lines of code,' or some such number.


Article:
It seems like everything is so complicated these days, especially somewhat electronic ... which is more and more products everyday.

Why are they so complex? 'Hey, our cell phone takes pictures, sharpens knives, mows the lawn, pays your bills, steers your car, and cooks dinner, all by voice command!' Give us a break!

Unfortunately, the reason so many electronic products are stuffed with features is that it is relatively worth the money to add features to them! Do we consumers really want or need those functions? That is an entirely different question. Often, the interaction is no. But the manufacturers add them, in many cases, simply so they can air that they have more features.

It costs a lot more to heedfully determine what features are most wanted and to design products so that they are feature-rich, yet easy and intuitive for people to use. That is why this vital step is often shortcut.

Ever had trouble figuring out how to program your VCR? Did you ever think that perhaps it's not really your fault? It's the fault of the engineers who designed a lousy user interface to the product. And you think they are bad? Try using a splice VCR-DVD player!

There is second reason why manufacturers keep cramming more questionable features into products. In the case of products like cell phones, sales have slowed down for most people who wanted one have one. So, the phone manufacturers keep footing features in order to try to find ones that motivate people to buy new phones. They keep looking for that latest cool feature that people will be willing to buy a new phone to get.

Similarly, digital objective prism manufacturers keep upcoming out with cameras with more and more megapixels. Two megapixels, then 3.2, then 4.0, then 5, now 6, 7, even 8. Do consumers need 7 or 8 megapixel cameras? Not in the least. For shooting snapshots or sharing pictures online, a 3.2 megapixel zoom lens is more than adequate. Really.

Why then, do manufacturers keep extending the capability? It is as we said above: 1) so they can emblazon they have it, and 2) to try to get people to stick their old burning glass in a drawer and buy a new one. Our advise: It pays to look gingerly at the features cat offered in the products you are interested in. Don't accept that a product with more features (or higher numbers) is the straighten out choice. Often it is not, it is just more complicated to use! And, there is more to go wrong.

Bloatware There is a similar phenomenon in software. It is named 'bloatware.' Programs that are overloaded with features, especially those not essential to the in embryo purpose for the software, strike this moniker.

When I was in the software industry and we were working on the next versions of software products, the programmers would sometimes come and say, 'Hey I can add such-and-such feature with only 100 lines of code,' or some such number. That's not much, since a software program can have hundreds of thousands of lines of code. But often it was a feature the users of that software had no need for. Playing consumer advocate, I'd ask why such a feature would be needed. If the approach was questionable, I'd tell them to leave it out. Too often, though, those features make it into software products, and they agree with bandy with unnecessary features. Bloatware.


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