...doesnât mean you should
Iâm a developer. And today, I was asked if it was possible to put icons with tooltips inside of a tooltip. Which was a difficult question to answer because (as with most things in the non-physics-limited html UI world) it is possible but that doesnât mean it is a good idea by any stretch of the imagination.
Iâm also an ex-mac developer. One of my not-so-fond memories of my mac was the time my pro broke and had to be sent away for repair because out of no where, all the keys were re-mapped and it was impossible to un-scramble the mappings. ...and that re-mapping is a feature. that someone spends time maintaining. What? Yes, you can mindlessly remap keys and ruin someoneâs laptop too -- just google it.
Why would anyone want to remap the functionality of labeled keys?
Answer: to prank your fraternity brother since dropping them off in the wilderness with no way to get home is so early 90âČs.
For real, most questions here are rhetorical, but this one I want real answers to. Why would someone want to make keys labeled âQWERTYâ type something else?
Why would my podcast player (pictured above) allow users the ability to map keys to do different functions? Giving a play button the ânextâ action would ruin symbol recognition of the right-pointing triangle. So why allow it? Why maintain that feature?
As product owners and designers, we need to say ânoâ to some features and say ânoâ to letting users configure themselves into corners. Do not make things so flexible that they become broken and unusable.
And as a final note--so as to not always leave on a grumpy note--here is a meme about "just because you can, doesn't mean you should." Feel free to tattoo the mantra across your heart.
So What Should I if There is So Much I Can?
Here are just a few things to ask yourself when deciding if a feature should be built:
Does it bring user value? Is it solving a userâs problem? Will anyone use it? How many âanyoneâs?
Do you want to maintain it? What is the effort to include this? Short and long term?
Is it the most important thing? Are there other things you would rather spend time, money and effort building? Is this the highest priority?
Are there revenue goals attached? Did someone (*cough* sales) promise? Would people pay for this feature?
Does this fit into our mission? How does this align with our values and our trajectory for the future?
How do you know? Is there evidence to back up your above answers? Can you measure success?
Now go forth and build things that you should build!