In thinking about dropping a unnecessary feature from Project 3, I decided to contemplate removing the counter timer for the time remaining in an advertisement. The inclusion of many timers in a YouTube - video timer, time until skip, and the advertisement time - made me wonder if this is really a necessary feature because the multitude of timers is borderline too much information for someone who wants to casually browse YouTube. To test this thought I performed the "unnecessary test".
Is there more than one way to complete the task this feature supports? No, the timer is the only way a user can ascertain the time remaining in a full length advertisement. Does this feature contribute directly to the completion of the task? No, because the video can still be viewed without knowing the advertisement length. Is the task this feature supports vital to the activity this application supports? No, the video can still be played without the timer.
Since users cannot change the play of advertisements anyways, the timer of the ad playing is of no functional use. The entire site and video playing features would work exactly the same without it. While the time to skip is still an important feature, the total time of the advertisement is not. Clutter could be reduced by removing this feature, possibly enhancing overall the design at the expense of some functionality.
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