Designed for Use, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2 Features Are Not Requirements

It’s surprisingly easy to confuse requirements with features. The distinction is sometimes hard to make, but generally, requirements are problems. Features are specific attempts at solving problems.

For example, “I need a login button on the first screen of the app that allows me to enter my Twitter credentials” is a description of a specific feature.

“I need to be able to post messages to Twitter using my existing Twitter account” is a requirement.

Let’s take a real-world example to illustrate the difference. If you ask people for something that would make their daily life more convenient, they might ...