A topic widely debated in the software as a service, web design and development world, today I’m going to tackle defining what a feature is.
If this is your first time reading my blog I’m incredibly minimalist and thrifty, and prior to moving this past month I was holding on to nothing but my clothes, a coffee table and clothes dresser.
It was Thanksgiving, and I found myself in a Target store exchanging an inflatable twin bed that had gone flat. I was moving into a new apartment on Black Friday, and that would work as a living room couch until I found something that matched the acutramol. I was absolutely amazed at how the store was prepared for Black Friday, I had never seen anything like it. Televisions and gaming consoles filled the isles, 100s of them. And it just so happened that I was also in need of a TV for my apartment as my 12inch Magnavox just wasn’t going to cut it for long. I returned later the next day and would make my first ever Black Friday purchase, a 50” Samsung TV.
I got home and unpacked my new TV and set it up to watch a DVD. Upon further inspection of my new TV I didn’t have a way to play DVD’s. I would have to downgrade the nights entertainment back to a 12-inch Magnavox with the built-in DVD player.
DVD playback ended up being a pretty important feature to me in that moment. Something I could assign a value to, and would have paid extra for if it had come standard on my new 50”. I wasn’t terribly upset I couldn’t watch my movie on the larger screen because it was just background noise while I got settled in anyways, so all was well, for now…
The next day
I popped in another DVD while I cooking in the kitchen. I noticed I couldn’t hear any sound coming from the 12” Magnavox when I was on the other side of the room. Perplexed because the volume was already set to max, I quickly unpacked my Dell laptop which would allow me to use its Bluetooth to connect my Bose speaker. Volume problem solved.
Bluetooth compatibility ended up being a pretty important feature to me in that moment. My 12” TV was an older model, and did not come with that feature.
All this to say…
If something makes your life more comfortable and convenient, or in general it remedies a pain we have, you can associate and assign value to it.
When it comes to any type of technology, software or web design, a feature is anything that makes your life easier.
Stay personable,
Heath
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