Should Technology Designers Adopt a Minimalist Approach to New Features?

Probably not. Studies show that people tend to buy a product that has more features than they need (then curse it afterward - more on that later). Subsequently, marketing pours in feature after feature and that is what the public uses as a barometer for what to buy.

I do believe that a subset of people want minimalistic products, too, but we are not the mainstream.

As an example I bought a newer stereo receiver. After using it a short while I began to curse the thing. It had an order of magnitude more features than I needed and those features just encumbered its intended use. I finally gave up on the system and just built my own with only the features I needed, which boils down to a analog volume control, tone controls, and an input selector switch. Not only is it easier to use, it is of better audio quality, but I am a minority.

So, you can rant about it, but until the majority of consumers come to your side of the fence you have to live in their pasture.

I take your points.
It should be about clever design which allows layers of functionality to be exposed to those who want them.
Good design is too often completely overlooked. They should maybe look at games design where you expect instant playability but want layers of difficulty and sophistication which can be accessed later.
The real answer is we want neither simple nor complex, we want both and we want a well designed user interface.
The recently installed self service checkouts at our local supermarket are a case in point. To look up Sweet Potatoes, you have to go to 'Potatoes'. Of course when I point out that this is wrong and that it should be under 'Sweet' as well, I'm told 'That would mean there were more irems on that screen' D'uh? Yes and they would be the items you expect...that sort of bonkers logic should maybe have them under their latin names!
I have also suggested a 'Mute' button to stop the irritating voice which is always half a transaction behind you... Are my comment understood or passed on?
Send you answers, to the :-
Do we give a damn
Market reasearch ldt,
The rubbish tip
Etherville.
Del <rant mode off>

Such is the problem with human factors. The interface on most consumer goods is so bad that it boggles the mind.

Part of my problem with that is perspective. I work in the avionics industry where human-machine interface is at the top of the chart.

Consumers get the bottom of the pile as far as I am concerned. Case in point is my $1700 Kenwood DNX7100. The engineers responsible for the human interface should be made to commit Seppuku, however, that would dishonor the memories of the samurai.

I believe there are actually a number of aspects of this issue. There is a desire in manufacturing marketing (and software marketing) to appear to be on the cutting edge of technology- "we are the market leader." What happens is that new features that may or may not be viable enhancements to the basic function of the product are added just for the sake of appearance. One also finds a tendency to expand the utility of a product beyond the original concept, probably with the idea that a product that has more uses will enjoy greater market share- an idea that falls apart when all the "new" features get in the way of realizing the actual functionality (why do I have to read a 100 page manual to figure out how to set the time on my DVD player? I did not buy the thing to keep time!, but those flashing numbers drive me crazy!). Of course, I don't have any input into the design process for the DVD player- there is a tremendous marketing wall between me and the designers.

On the other side of the issue is the fact that, quite often, the consumer does not always fully comprehend just exactly what it is needed, and can tend to rely on marketing types to determine what features are wants, whether our consumer understands what these features actually do or not. Our marketeer is motivated by the fact that the sales commission increases significantly as a result of loading the product with expensive features. Our consumer gains bragging rights for having the "latest and greatest"...

And, of course, there is the product life-cycle issue. When one has a successful product, it WILL be copied, and the competition, trying to play catch-up to your market share, is going to add bells and whistles to create the impression that the alternative product is superior (and cheaper) than your original. You come to the conclusion that to maintain your market leadership, you must also add these new bells and whistles...

Or, perhaps, you add them because you realize your market is saturated, and you want to convince your customers that it is time to "upgrade", in spite of the fact that your customers are perfectly happy with the original product, so you can keep your sales numbers moving in the direction that will keep the investors happy...

Now, here's what I need- an alarm clock that plays music of my choice, and starts the bread maker and coffee pot at the appropriate hour, so that when the music starts playing, the house is filled with the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee and fresh-baked bread...

Now I'm a bit older I need an alarm clock that can get me up in the morning.
Del

Not all designers are fans of feature creep, they are often at odds with marketing at least in my experience.

OK, I'll be the Devil's advocate and say that I prefer to have all the features that I can get provided that the cost increase is less than say 5% more than the cost without. I find it very annoying to unable to make a simple adjustment to a device simply because the manufacturer chose not to make a parameter accessible to the end user.

I cite my wide-screen plasma TV which displays gray bars on the left and right of the 16:9 screen when viewing a program that was filmed in 4:3 aspect ratio. The gray color is very distracting because it appears brighter to the eye than actual program. The first time I encountered this I thumbed through my owner's manual to find out how to change the gray bars to black and found that I only had 3 shades of gray to pick from, and none of those were even close to black, so I called the manufacturer to ask if there is possibly a hidden or locked feature or maybe an optional download to enable black bars (the TV is internet ready), and the response was that the gray bars are "better for the TV," so black is not an option. Had I known this I would not have purchased the TV in favor of a different brand.

I guess the moral of my story rant is that I prefer to have options that I don't need rather than to need options that I do not have.