People only want their technology to do three things
By @edent
· technology · 6 comments · 200 words · read ~390 times.
Many years ago, I worked as a product manager for pre-smart phones. Remember that old Nokia phone you had? Yeah, them!
This was a common complaint we heard back then: "Ugh! Why do phones have all these useless, overcomplicated, random functions? People only want their phones to do three thing - calls, texts, and..."
And...
And that's where the problem was. That third thing was different for everyone. For some it was a calendar, for others a calculator. Some couldn't live without Snake, and others could cope without a MIDI style ringtone.
I see the same today in technology. Take something like Markdown. People only want a text formatting syntax to do three things. Bold text, links, and...
- Bullets
- Headings
- Tables
- Footnotes
At which point, you've basically reinvented HTML but with worse different syntax.
Messaging apps suffer the same problems. People only want to send texts, images, and...
- Reaction gifs
- Group chats
- Typing indicators
- Payment requests
This isn't a plea to reduce features. But, rather, it is a plea to users to have empathy for people who aren't like them. If you don't see the utility in a feature, that's probably because the feature isn't for you!
@Edent Reminds me of how people who would never eat a vegan sausage lost their minds over the fact that it was on the menu at all.
https://www.eatthis.com/news-cracker-barrel-impossible-meat-backlash/ This Popular Southern Restaurant Chain Faces Major Backlash Over a Polarizing Menu Item
@Edent snake. definately snake is the one and only viable option for the third.
Yes... though the phone calling aspect is now the least used part of my phone!
@Edent And now we have the opposite problem. So many apps on phones that you may have trouble finding where you put the icons for the ones you need.
@Edent I'm resisting the temptation to implement Wordle as a WAP app...
"Everything doesn't have to be for you" is the most important lesson to learn in a culture of conspicuous consumption.
It's cool to not like things, but it really also doesn't matter if you do.
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