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Do users actually want simple products, or products that hide complexity well?

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People always say they want simple products. Bloat is a big reason people dislike products and migrate away from existing tools. But I don't think that bloat comes from having too many features. Instead, it's mostly a UI/IA problem.

This is something we think about a lot at . Analytics and BI can get complicated quickly: permissions, SQL, charts, dashboards, filters, joins, data sources, teams, sharing, alerts, and so on. We can’t remove all of that complexity, because real teams eventually need it. Instead, we're trying to figure out how/when to reveal that complexity. Filters only appear if you ask the AI. Access controls can get super fine-grained, but only if you start inviting more teammates.

The best products often feel simple at the start, then become more powerful as the user needs more.

I think is a great example. It comes with hundreds of built-in features, with even more available through extensions. But it doesn't feel bloated because features are only surfaced if you explicitly search for them. The complexity is there, but it's organized in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming.

Curious what others think. Do users actually want simpler products, or do they want powerful products that hide complexity well?

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I think users want simple entry points more than simple products. A product can be very powerful, but the first few minutes should make one clear path obvious. The complexity can come later, once the user actually needs it.

 agreed, that's the best of both worlds. Simple when you're starting, complex when you need it.

 I came to comment this exact thing. Simple entry points + learning curve that doesn't make you want to cry tears of anger and frustrations is where it's at

When some product hides complexity, and I know only about a few features, after realising its complexity, I feel a huge FOMO (and positive surprise) :D

 same! Linear did this well. Simple to start, but they have extra features you can enable in settings (like Triage and Cycles).

I'd rather use a powerful product that hides complexity intelligently than a basic product that limits what I can do.

 same. I felt this with the recent Linear mobile app. Before, I was using the web app, which had all the functionality of the desktop version, just scaled down. Then I switched to the native app which felt much more intentional and performant, but didn't have all the functionality built out. Ended up going back to the web version because it had more functionality.

products that hide complexity well, every time. from a marketing perspective the worst thing that can happen is a user opens your product and feels lost in the first 30 seconds because that's when they decide if they're staying or bouncing. the raycast example is perfect... hundreds of features but you only see them when you go looking. the moment you front-load everything to show how "powerful" you are, you lose the people who just needed the simple version

 totally agree. It's a hard design problem though! There's always pressure to add more functionality, and the default is to just make it available to everyone.

i think users want to feel capable, not overwhelmed. simple and powerful aren't opposites, the question is just when complexity shows up. the raycast example nails it. everything is there but nothing is in your face until you need it. progressive disclosure done right.

 I like that framing a lot, your product should aim to be both simple and powerful.

I think the moment from download to signup decides it for the user. If the entire process was easy, the user will move on without friction. They will explore the complexity as the need arises but if its overwhelming to begin with, users will be lost.

 onboarding is so important! Such a hard part of the product to design though.

 definitely the hard part. It's the process that decides a lot for the user.

depends so much on who your user is though. With Receiptor AI, I've seen users who just want their receipts out of their mailbox, get them there fast or they're gone. And others who need the full thing: multi-entity, multi-currency, accounting integrations.

So it's always about showing the right thing at the right time, which comes down to:

  1. profiling early at signup

  2. good timing in the UX

What's been interesting for us is that a bidirectional AI chat, where it asks you for context rather than just waiting for questions, is actually the best tool we've found for figuring out where a user is.

 interesting, would love to see how you do that. We've been considering something similar for onboarding at Basedash.

The opposite of simple isn't powerful. It's confusing.

A calculator is simple because the complexity matches the job. A BI tool shouldn't aspire to be simple. It should aspire to make users feel progressively smarter as their needs evolve.

 yup good way to put it.