08-09-2014, 11:53 AM
Hold on, I thought this was the 'Feature requests and ideas' section?
Graeme, I know what you mean. I've seen what you describe happen many times over the decades too. And I have a couple of brothers who've been on development teams that wrestle with this too.
But if this was my company, and I put up a forum with a section for feature brainstorming, I think I'd try to encourage more wide open thinking there.
Just as we've all seen featuritus cripple good software, you have to admit that we've also seen it improve the experience for the market and users. When you think about it, a lot of great software titles have basically evolved out of the idea of combining features of what were once discrete packages.
And isn't this kind of what distinguishes MSheets from a good PDF reader? Or a music cataloguing app? It's attractive and powerful because it's brought these two functions together in one package. The player is a step to yet another merge -- and very much in a logical, user-focused direction.
As always, it's not so much how many things should you be able to do with an app -- but how can it be the most useful to the most users. Most of the time these features are innovations in the UI. That is, give the user more freedom to customize their experience and discover new ways to make the mathematical heart of the program work deliver the goods.
Yep, the main 'engine' has to be competively efficient and the architectural strategies have to optimize this -- but if you're on top of that, for the long game you also have to acknowledge that hardware is going to get better, and features you never dreamed of from users you may also never heard of -- this is the edge of where the real advances take place. Remember when Photoshop was just used by graphic designers?
And there's also more options for the developer to strategically market new features. Add-ons, extras sold as options. With the right handling, they can provide solid market feedback and provide some revenue too.
As a singer in two choruses I've seen a variety of tablet sheet display apps being used. As well as various music track players. As far as I know, nobody's ever figured out an elegant way to combine the two. But does that mean that it can't, or shouldn't be done?
My guess is the first developers who figure this one out will have the potential to practically own and even create new markets.
Graeme, I know what you mean. I've seen what you describe happen many times over the decades too. And I have a couple of brothers who've been on development teams that wrestle with this too.
But if this was my company, and I put up a forum with a section for feature brainstorming, I think I'd try to encourage more wide open thinking there.
Just as we've all seen featuritus cripple good software, you have to admit that we've also seen it improve the experience for the market and users. When you think about it, a lot of great software titles have basically evolved out of the idea of combining features of what were once discrete packages.
And isn't this kind of what distinguishes MSheets from a good PDF reader? Or a music cataloguing app? It's attractive and powerful because it's brought these two functions together in one package. The player is a step to yet another merge -- and very much in a logical, user-focused direction.
As always, it's not so much how many things should you be able to do with an app -- but how can it be the most useful to the most users. Most of the time these features are innovations in the UI. That is, give the user more freedom to customize their experience and discover new ways to make the mathematical heart of the program work deliver the goods.
Yep, the main 'engine' has to be competively efficient and the architectural strategies have to optimize this -- but if you're on top of that, for the long game you also have to acknowledge that hardware is going to get better, and features you never dreamed of from users you may also never heard of -- this is the edge of where the real advances take place. Remember when Photoshop was just used by graphic designers?
And there's also more options for the developer to strategically market new features. Add-ons, extras sold as options. With the right handling, they can provide solid market feedback and provide some revenue too.
As a singer in two choruses I've seen a variety of tablet sheet display apps being used. As well as various music track players. As far as I know, nobody's ever figured out an elegant way to combine the two. But does that mean that it can't, or shouldn't be done?
My guess is the first developers who figure this one out will have the potential to practically own and even create new markets.