Almost on queue, Twitter has recently done (twice!) what I’ve been thinking about lately. They have removed features.
Removing features is very tricky and fraught with problems, even if those features are used by very few people.
New Follower Emails
The first example is when Twitter improved their new follower emails. Many articles where written about how it was a great improvement (and now in HTML!! heh). And the new follower emails are an improvement. However, as I wrote previously about the new follower notification emails, they actually removed a feature. Before the improvement, the emails included my Twitter id. Now they don’t, and that was important to me.
I’m probably not a typical Twitter user. Most people I know have only one Twitter account. Maybe I shouldn’t worry so much about staying “on topic” – that is the email marketer in me.
@replies
Recently, Twitter removed a feature used by a very small population of their user base. However, it caused quite a stir. (Twitter @replies Saga) It is interesting to note that this feature was removed because of the large processing load it placed on the Twitter database.
What is the lesson?
In both of these cases, if Twitter had not initially provided the feature, it probably would not have been a big deal.
And that leads to the lesson. If you are designing new software, keep this in mind. Adding features is easy. Too easy. Software features are really, really easy to add. Once users start using them, they are very difficult to take away.
So, do what the 37Signals guys have been saying – implement less features. You can always add them if your users request them.
Taking features away? Well, that’s a lot more difficult (and painful).
