A lot of design work goes into constructing features–extra options that are crafted to make things easier to use and/or give the user more power. Of course, as many examples will show, having extra features may not actually make things easier, and furthermore it may not give the user any more power, as we can see from one example:

Let’s look at the example of the Change or Remove Programs dialog box in Windows XP:

This box is a useful timesaver for house cleaning, when you want to remove a lot of programs at once. It also, in theory, keeps track of all the behind the scene programs you may not be able to find from the start menu. In this case, functionality that used to be spotty and possibly hidden is put all in one spot–a convenient timesaver.

However, the same is not true of the Change/Remove Program box’s cousin, the Add New Programs box:

A quick check of this box shows that it isn’t really accomplishing the two goals of the previous box: It doesn’t make anything easier to use and it doesn’t give the user any more power.

To see why, keep in mind how most people installed programs when Windows XP was popular. They either (a) downloaded them from the internet or (b) installed them off a CD. Most CDs automatically start when they are inserted into the CD drive, so there is no need to use this box at all. Furthermore, this box is completely useless when trying to install programs off the internet. (In addition, the box doesn’t give you more power, because exploring the CD will give you more options to work with.)

The Windows Update button suffers from the same flaw–why would anyone use this dialog box if they had Update right in their start menu? (there are, in fact, many other places where you can find Windows Update as well):

So not only does this box not provide any more functionality than nothing at all, it is also a more difficult way of installing software than the alternatives! This is a clear example where less would be more–the Add New Programs box isn’t a useful counterpart to the Change/Remove Programs box. If it was removed, few (if any) would notice.

Conclusions?

(While the Add New Programs dialog could be useful with a redesign, we’ll hold off on discussing that for now.) What we’ve found here is an example of UI doing something that’s better done elsewhere–in this case, installing programs and updating Windows.

This is an example of a philosophy inherent in much of Windows (and many other less popular operating systems): there are multiple, often redundant ways to do the same thing. While this can be useful (some ways may be faster and more confusing at the same time–i.e. expert shortcuts), sometimes it is just redundant. Part of designing a good UI is being able to tell the difference between these two scenarios.

_{Note to the nitpickers: Part of the reason for the Add New Program box exists is that it does add functionality for network users, as shown here. (For those who aren’t network users and are now wondering how to remove the Add New Program box, instructions are here.)}