Featuritis+(Creeping+Featurism)

This occurs when a product (usually software) continues to add and overemphasize new features to the point where the user (especially one who is at the beginner level) becomes discouraged by the product's complexity. Featuritis, is as it sounds, regarded as a disease. It often goes against original design objectives associated with a project such as simplicity, compactness, stability, and bug reduction [[|1] ]. It also makes the simplest tasks extremely difficult, particularly for those unfamiliar with the software.

Featuritis is generally caused by "enthusiastic users who request additional features to meet their specific needs and because (in their opinion) additional features could 'improve' the software" [[|2] ]. These professional, expert and/or design-oriented users are well-meaning, but they make up only a portion of the larger group of users who have different, and often much-simpler needs.

Fortunately, there are some ways in which Featuritis can be cured. One way involves the software offering various modes of use for the various types of users. For instance, in the image below you can see that the 1st Page 2000 program (an HTML editor) allows the user to chose a mode based on his/her particular skills and needs.

[[|3] ]

[1] "Featuritis". Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Featuritis Retrieved on 2007-10-05. [2][3] Soegaard, Mads. "Featuritis (or creeping featurism)." __Interaction-design.org.__ http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/featuritis_and_creeping_featurism.html Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
 * Resources:**