Feature Fatigue¶
Thompson, D. V., Hamilton, R. W., & Rust, R. T. (2005). Feature Fatigue: When Product Capabilities Become Too Much of a Good Thing. Journal of Marketing Research, 42(4), 431-442.
Cited by¶
3 citations across 3 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Additive Bias
- In product design it is "feature creep," where pressure to add user-visible features is sharp and pressure to remove them weak.
This sourceEmpirical demonstration that consumers over-weight capability before use and choose overly complex (feature-laden) products, then suffer 'feature fatigue' — the asymmetric pressure to add user-visible features over removing them, and the case for fewer features per product.
Supported in partVerified against the publisher's abstract
Abstract backs feature fatigue and the case for fewer features per product, but not the claim's sharp-vs-weak pressure asymmetry.
“The results suggest that firms should consider having a larger number of more specialized products, each with a limited number of features, rather than loading all possible features into one product.”
- In product design it is "feature creep," where pressure to add user-visible features is sharp and pressure to remove them weak.
Domain-specific¶
- Lehman's law of continuing growth
- Across three decades Office continuously expanded its feature set — from basic word processing and spreadsheets to real-time co-authoring, cloud sync, and web and mobile versions — even though surveys consistently find the average user touches only a small fraction of the available features
This sourceThe feature-fatigue finding that consumers choose overly complex products and then use less of what they chose.
Supported in partVerified against the publisher's abstract
“too many features can make a product overwhelming for consumers and difficult to use”
- Across three decades Office continuously expanded its feature set — from basic word processing and spreadsheets to real-time co-authoring, cloud sync, and web and mobile versions — even though surveys consistently find the average user touches only a small fraction of the available features
Mechanisms¶
- Feature Budget
- Its strength is that it fights creeping featurism directly and keeps a product legible to newcomers, defending the invariant that the system must remain usable by the people it is for.
This sourceFinds that excessive features can make products overwhelming and difficult to use, and recommends limiting feature sets rather than maximizing initial-choice appeal.
- Its strength is that it fights creeping featurism directly and keeps a product legible to newcomers, defending the invariant that the system must remain usable by the people it is for.
Verification¶
Does it exist? Confirmed. This work's DOI resolves to a registered record, which fixes its identity. That is all it fixes.
Does it back the claim? Read against the text for 2 of 3 citations: 2 supported in part. Each verdict is shown under its citation below, with what in the work backs the sentence.
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