Software companies and drug dealers both call their customers the same thing. Users.

unknown

• Forced Upgrades (with no functional benefit/change)
• Requiring Network or Lookup on Network on startup
• Telemetry
• Dependencies
• Blackholes

Of the above, I think the forced upgrades is the worst. Like most things in the list, they make developers lives easier, but it is terrible for the customer.

Shipping often has become an ethos, but I’m afraid that most of your users would rather stability over new releases. I look at software the same way I look at restaurants. I want the same burger I got last time. I may glance at the specials and think maybe I will try that another time.

If they really were so special, they’d be on the menu

Seinfeld

If they really were so special, they’d be on the menu, to quote Mr. Seinfeld. It is quite disturbing to my flow of actually getting work done to launch an app and be presented with a question if I’d like to upgrade. No, I’d actually like to do the thing I started the app for. Edit the file. Get off my lawn.

Not sure if it is to justify the developers own existence, but to me, more versions signal more problems. Once a quarter should be enough. Pushing betas out to users and letting them test it for you is lazy. Be your own first user and find the rough edges first.

I’ll just end with the concept of a Blackhole. Features like inboxes, random feeds, etc that only serve to boost engagement are the death of product.

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The image in this post is: By Ute Kraus, Physics education group Kraus, Universität Hildesheim, Space Time Travel, (background image of the milky way: Axel Mellinger) - Gallery of Space Time Travel, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=370240