Avoid feature overload.
I'm pretty sure that we have all purchased products that have way more features then we will ever need. My digital camera is a perfect example of this, I use maybe 5 features of the 1,000's that are available to me because I'm nowhere near professional. I have also purchased services with much more than I will ever need, and I've also declined them for the same reason. Today I read an article by Carmine Gallo about how simplicity in products, services, even presentations, can be more powerful than having loads of features. Here a couple paragraphs from the article:
"Most consumer electronics today seem to be built by engineers for
engineers, resulting in feature creep—way more bells and whistles than
most users will ever want. The Flip digital video camcorder stands out
because of its simplicity. Since its introduction in May 2007, Flip,
now owned by Cisco Systems (CSCO),
has reinvigorated the portable camcorder market, accounting for 36% of
all camcorders sold during the 2009 holiday season, according to market
researcher NPD Group.
I recently interviewed Simon Fleming-Wood, part of the original Flip
development team, to learn how this popular product was created,
designed, and marketed. The Flip story is based on a philosophy that
every consumer touch point must be simple and fun. Here are four ways
Flip won hearts and minds that you may be able to apply to your own
business.
Keep your product or service simple.
Flip designers had a test—whenever they created a prototype and handed
it to someone, they intended for that person to be able to turn it on
and play with it in 30 seconds without having to read a manual. The
30-second rule became very important. Instead of adding lots of
features, designers limited the Flip to four buttons: on/off, record,
playback, and delete. That philosophy is still in place: To keep the
user experience simple, everything needed to play the device is built
in (including a pop-out USB arm to connect the device to a computer).
It allows the camera to ship with no installation CD and no cables.
Everything the user needs is contained in the camera."
You can read the entire article here.
-Brianna