Designed for Use, 2nd Edition

Solve Several Problems with One Change

Instead of adding new features individually, it often makes sense to consider similar (or even seemingly unrelated) features as part of one problem to solve.

For example, consider these feature requests for a word processor:

User 1:

I often write letters, so it would be really useful if I could insert my letterhead automatically into my documents.

User 2:

I would like a way to change the default font.

User 3:

Is there some way I can change the footer style on several documents at the same time?

Ostensibly, these requests don’t have much in common. However, they could all be satisfied by implementing a templating system. Giving people the option to create their text document from a set of templates solves ...