Don't give me options

I often come across developers who believe giving the user options is a good thing. They believe the more the better, since it gives the user the highest level of ability.

I disagree. Strongly disagree.

Options are useless. There have been many studies on why less is more over the years. Lately, a lot of research has gone into why too many choices has the opposite effect: the agony of choice is real.

It’s easy to see why software developers think like this, though. Who can stand up an opportunity to hide laziness under the guise of user empowerment?

So, don’t give me options. They only waste my time. As a developer, it’s your obligation to narrow the options down to very, very few. The ones that are the best.

Anything else is just a bad excuse.