Avoid Shiny Website Feature Syndrome

Last updated: July 29th, 2024

It's exciting to get a shiny new feature or article up on your website. It’s much more fun than fixing small issues or updating old information! 

But that doesn’t make it more important. In fact, those less glamorous updates might be even more crucial than the flashy new additions. Remember, every new feature is like adopting a digital pet - cute, but needy! Each new element adds complexity you’ll need to support. Every article eventually needs updating or removal. New navigation items can overwhelm your menu, and new features will need debugging as you make further changes. Without a strategy, you’ll end up with a digital petting zoo—one that’s hard to navigate, doesn’t support your goals, and will require a full-time zookeeper to wrangle later.

How do you avoid this? If you’re adding something, ask yourself:

• Does this fix a problem for your visitors? If so, proceed! Those are top priority.

• Is this more valuable than updating old content? If you’re posting articles weekly but never removing anything, it likely makes more sense to post less often and spend some time updating or taking old articles down. Quality over quantity!

• Does this support your key goals? Are you hoping it will increase or decrease something meaningful to your organization?

• Does this support one of your audience's goals? Will it provide them something they legitimately want? (A quick set of user research might be useful to understand your audience better if you’re unsure.)

• Does this clearly move your website forward in an incremental way? Your goal should always be to move towards an overall vision in bite-size chunks.

If you answered no to most of the above, is it really worth your time now and the time to support it down the road? Your future self (and your visitors) will thank you!