When to add features, and when an apps feel bloated.

[urlwolf]

I found some thoughts from the cintanotes developer very inspiring:

features should be organic, effective, discoverable and convenient".

"Organic" means that the feature shouldn’t stick out of the program like an alien body. A non-organic feature IMO is the one that while coming in handy sometimes, still isn’t really connected with the product’s main goal and functionality. (Example of non-organic features: HTML authoring in MS Word, wave editing in Nero Burning ROM)

"Effective" means – should be lightweight and not hurt performance and memory footprint, or be optional to use.

"Discoverable" means – a new user should be able to discover that this feature exists without reading help.

"Convenient" means that a feature is easy to use correctly and hard to misuse, and that a significant number of users will use this feature on a regular basis.

So if the suggested implementation of a third frame will seem to satisfy all these criteria, off we go.

Wrote a bit more Here.

[kyrathaba]

I like these criteria at first blush. But I think a developer and his or her users might differ signicantly in their opinion of what qualifies as "discoverable". A developer is biased toward a belief that his or her app is laid out intuitively. And as far as not having to read the help file, I think very simple apps can get away with this by conforming to GUI standards, but I've used many apps whose features weren't immediately apparent, but which demonstrated internal consistency and logic after a quick browse through the help file.