By combining different products into one or adding functions to an existing product, most companies believe it is a convenient way to increase product compatibility in the market. The ease of companies to extend the laundry list of functions or increased computational power is even more prevalent with ubiquitous circuitry and interfaces. Users with the attitude that more is better, see these 'developments' as improvements. Superficially, developing multi-purpose products is a win-win solution. However, the investigation shows a significant gulf between the functions in mobile phones and the functions used.
Companies keep producing complex, hard-to-use multi-purpose products with useless functions which are already far beyond most users' needs and capabilities to manipulate. This study will utilize multi-purpose mobile phones as an example to investigate ways to increase product design usability.
By recognizing that user-centered design becomes diluted through a range of compromises, this research will highlight the issues and areas that generate this vicious cycle. This study will apply previous knowledge and understand this phenomenon from various perspectives, such as user-centered design, psychology, and business. Further, possible solutions will be proposed based on the discoveries.