When product capabilities become

too much of a good thing

Prepared by: Ouafi IDRISSI JANATI

A state of frustration resulting from the multiple features on a device

Manufacturers add as many features in their products as they can.

Tacking features on to products makes them harder to use even when they
add wholly different realms of functionality.

The complexity they introduce to the task at hand can be mind-boggling.

Customers will never use every feature of a product.

Why manufactures want to make their products

almighty monsters?

Adding new features cost almost nothing.

Raw materials are better but their costs are decreasing.

It is more economical to design a product with many features rather than to

design many products with single features

Manufactures want their products more competitive.

More features mean more customers.

why consumers keep buying products they will live

to curse?

What Appeals to Consumers?

How additional features affect consumers perceptions of a product and their

purchase decisions?

What?

In-store experience and presented participants with three models of either a

digital video player or audio player. Each model differed only in its number of
features (seven, 14, or 21).

How?

Rate their perceptions of each models capability and usability.

Provide their overall evaluation of each models utility according to six measures
(bad/good, unlikable/likable, not useful/useful, low/high
quality, undesirable/desirable, unfavorable/favorable).

Choose one of the models, indicating how confident they were about their
decision and how difficult it was to make the decision.

62.3% of the participants chose high-feature models.

Consumers know that products with more features are harder to use, but
before they purchase a product they value its capability more than its
usability.

Customers tend to buy products with more features if they dont consider
about the price.

Myhusbandwantsacellphonewithjustnumbers
onit.Heissufferingfrom featurefatiguewithhiscurrentphone.

What They Choose to Add On?

Do they perceive that a product with more features truly has more
capabilities?

What & How?

141 participants (55.3% females, average age 21.1 years) were asked to:

Imagine that they were about to subscribe to digital video player.

Choose the features they wanted from a list of 25 features.

Rate their familiarity with each feature and its importance.

Rate the perceived capability and usability of their customized product.

Of the 25 features, participants chose an average of 19.6 for their

customized products.

Approximately half of the participants chose more than 80% of the available
features.

The connection between adding product features and decreasing usability

seems to hold even when the consumer is able to select each feature.
Even when consumers are allowed to customize a product, they
load on the features, worrying little about the learning curve
they are setting for themselves.

Pay for one

more option

Not yet in Morocco

What Makes Them Happy in the End?

Do they suspect it will be harder to use or does usability become more

important?

What & How?

Two working models of the digital video player one with seven features and
one with 21.

Participants consulted a users manual and performed a series of four tasks

with the product to choose their model.

190 participants (52.1% males, average age 20.5 years) were asked to:

Provide an overall evaluation of the product, its capability, and usability.

View the user interface and the list of features for two other models.

Provide an overall evaluation of each models utility and choose one?

The majority (66%) of participants in the before use group chose the highfeature model.

Only 44% of the participants in the after use group who had used the highfeature model chose it.

Those who used the high-feature model were less confident in their choices
and rated the choice as difficult.

Once

consumers have used a product, their preferences

change. Suddenly, usability matters very much.

Before You Add That Next Feature, Do the Math!

Fopt=[(da)+w(ea)][2b(1+w)]

How many features should a product include to contribute most to the

bottom line?

Model:
Fopt=[(da)+w(ea)][2b(1+w)]

The company focuses neither on initial nor on longer-term profits.

Maximizing the net present value of the customers profit stream financial
analysts consider optimal.

To achieve the happy medium

I am the Happy Medium

How do companies reach the Happy Medium?

Consider long-term customer equity and not just customers initial choices.

Build simpler products.

Get the right mix of capability and usability in a product.

Consider offering a wider assortment of simpler products instead of rich products.

Give consumers decision aids.

Recommendation agents that interview buyers about their requirements.

Offer extended product trials.

Design products that do one thing very well.

Do you have any phones that make phone calls?

Developers lose sight of the products basic function it must do extremely well.

Satisfy customers with a tightly focused solution

Use prototypes and product-in-use research.

Designing research that gives consumers an opportunity to use prototypes may

increase the importance of usability.

Only

Can Fight Feature Fatigue

Stop exposing your customers to feature fatigue.

Simplicity is beauty.

A good product is simple enough to use.

Moroccan context