Sunday 1 January 2012

Inches and Miles

There's an old saying that says "Give them an inch, and they'll take a mile." Basically, it means that people are greedy and if you give anything, they'll just keep taking and taking. In terms of app development, it goes more like "Give them an inch, and they'll complain that you haven't given them a mile."

For example, I have an app that uses some random images as the background just for colour. It would be reasonably simple for me to give people the ability to snap a picture with the camera on their device and use that as a background. I won't, though. While the vast majority of people would be either happy to have the new feature, or at the very least, indifferent, a small minority would complain that they can't just use any image file on their device as the background. And, unfortunately, that minority is far more likely to rate an app than other people.

As a developer, I need to constantly be aware of people comparing what they have to what they could have. Right now, I have a dozen or so backgrounds, and most everyone seems to compare that to having no background at all, so I come out on top. But, if I let them snap a picture and use that as the background, then suddenly they'd be comparing that to using any photo they want as a background; a comparison which does not favour me.

Sure, some people might wonder if it would be nice to use their own photos as backgrounds anyway, but as long as I'm doing my best not to put that idea in their heads, it'll be a much smaller number than if I gave them the new feature. Essentially, some people are never satisfied, so it's best not to let them know what they don't have.

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