Liana Azwa

Adding one extra feature nearly cost us our startup.

Monday morning, anxiety twisted in my chest as I deleted half of our codebase.

Our product was buried under features, each an attempt to stave off failure, yet leaving us on the brink of collapse. The team lingered, eyes glued to my screen.

“It’s too cluttered,” I finally said, swallowing my fear.

My

One of the most intelligent case studies in design is the Chinese tea cup. They’re made without handles simply because if it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to drink.

Humans naturally want to add more. Add a cardboard sleeve, add a warning on the outside of the cup, add a handle. The result of all these things never cools down the actual contents.