What is cruft?
In programming, code is said to be full of cruft when it contains many leftover or legacy objects, and is generally of poor quality. In user interface design, cruft is redundant elements that add visual clutter and detract from elegance. In writing, cruft is a general lack of editing. In music, cruft is the extraneous sound that detracts from the impact of the song. In games, cruft is legacy systems, half-included dynamics, irritating interfaces, pointless cut scenes and overall sloppiness.
Cruft is everywhere. It is the enemy, and it must be destroyed, because cruft creates negative user experiences. To permit cruft is to say that you do not care about your users enough to fight for them.
So why should they believe in your marketing story if you clearly don’t respect them?
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