Why does product design sometimes fail? It's complicated

Everywhere you look, things are getting more complicated. Our phones have over a thousand settings. Showerheads come with apps. Cars have touchscreens. Ovens have touchscreens.  "There's no doubt that 'featuritis' is real," said design consultant Jakob Nielsen. "Most of these things are too complicated."

Nielsen says that part of the problem is bad design: "Simplicity is actually difficult to achieve. That takes a good amount of time, and talent, I should say, as well."

And part of the problem is us. As consumers, we tend to buy the gizmos with the most features. Nielsen said, "If I give you the choice between this toothbrush can do two things, and this one can do five things, you may think the five-feature toothbrush is a better toothbrush." And manufacturers, who believe consumers will pick the product with more features, have an incentive to keep piling them on.