Comment by charcircuit
5 hours ago
>And yet, this is how a lot of modern software behaves.
Not in my experience. Typically all of the "news" happens either during startup, or as part of some other flow. It doesn't happen in the middle of using software. Google Docs is not throwing up a blocking dialog in the middle of you typing a sentence.
>The analytics didn’t prove the feature was unwanted. The analytics proved that we buried it.
If I actually wanted a feature I would go through 10 menus to flip the switch. If the analytics says no one is uses it that is proof that no one wants it. It is possible that the user is unaware of it though.
>the product stops being a finished artifact
When you are doing constant software updates it is not a finished artifact anyways.
> Google Docs is not throwing up a blocking dialog in the middle of you typing a sentence.
I rarely use the G Suite, but when I do I get bombarded with a queue of popups and alerts about this feature, this Gemini integration and whatever else gets someone promoted.
> If I actually wanted a feature I would go through 10 menus to flip the switch.
That is if you know of this feature or are predisposed to rummage around software to look for a solution. Neither is common amongst common people.
> When you are doing constant software updates it is not a finished artefact anyways.
That I mostly agree with. Then you have teams who are assigned a sliver of the software and continually fuck with it to justify their existence.