A few days ago, I heard somebody say:
The more features we can offer to our users, the better.
Which had me thinking. Users are generally very demanding. The internet has dramatically lowered the bar for consumers to express their love or — more common — their disdain for your product. Every man and his dog has a feature request for your website, and if your app was 10$ cheaper, they’d buy it instantly! Right…
So how do you handle these demands? Most companies provide ways to leave feedback, and then simply prioritize based on several criteria. You’ll often hear users complaining that they’re not listening
, but most of the time, companies do. It’s just not possible to address every request or complaint.
In my eyes though, the assumption that the more features you can offer to our users the better, is utterly wrong. There’s a critical lesson in usability stating that more features won’t make your app intrinsically better. We’re reminded of it every day, seeing bloatware apps, monstrous interfaces and usability horrors.
This brings us to companies like Pixar and Apple. They leave out features and ideas if they don’t work in some way. Take the current lack of flash, a video recorder and cut-and-paste on the iPhone for example. Here’s what WALL•E director Andrew Stanton recently said about the audience:
I don’t mean this as a negative, but I don’t think of the audience at all. I don’t go to see a movie –a filmmaker’s vision– hoping to second-guess what I want. I go to see what he wants. [...] The day we start think about what the audience wants is the day we’re going to start making bad choices.
And here’s the famous Steve Jobs quote from Business Week, back in May 1998:
It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.
A very interesting duality this is. Pixar and Apple somehow manage to balance on the hairline between arrogance and enlightenment — for lack of a better word. Where does this ability come from? Is it those smart guys at the top? Is it years of working hard on a profound understanding of the way the market works?
To sum it all up, is the user the best guide for your project, or does he only distract you from your goal? (The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, but hey I’m starting a discussion here…)
There’s a fine line of semantics here.
In my opinion, you can *never* just blindly execute what the user asks you to do. That’s what Pixar and Apple are preaching.
But the moment you stop listening to your users, and the moment you stop building things that are not useful for a user (user-sentric thinking), that moment you’re dead in the water.
If your message is: don’t take the user into account, then I don’t agree with you. If your message is: don’t blindly execute the demands for the user, then three cheers.
While looking at your platform, I tend to believe you’re going for the second option
Oh you should definitely listen to users. But as you say, never just blindly listen and abide.
Sometimes the stubbornness of Apple results in wonderful products, but it also may backfire. As the company grows, people will be more and more claiming their place. Just take a look at the numerous rants in the Apple discussion boards, or what Khoi Vinh just wrote: