Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design, Second Edition

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According to a 2002 study by Standish Group, 64 percent of software features are “never or rarely used.” Look at your TV remote control and count the number of buttons that you’ve never touched. The same goes for almost any gadget or software you care to name. There are plenty of opportunities to simplify by removing.

Conventional wisdom says that more features mean more capability, which, in turn, means a more useful product. Conventional wisdom also says that products with more features will beat products with fewer features. But simpler products frequently displace their more complex rivals.

In the 1990s, Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, looked at why big companies with plenty of cash and dominant ...