When two features share one button

21 July 2026

We met a ride-hailing crew whose new “rest timer” and new “end shift” confirmation both lived behind the same overflow control. The event was named overflow_open. It told us that someone had opened a menu. It told us nothing about rest.

Before a study we now ask: does this feature have its own door? If two jobs share a tap, we either narrow the study to one job that has a later, clearer event, or we recommend an event map review first.

Shared doors are common in small apps that are afraid of clutter. Fear of clutter is reasonable. Pretending the overflow menu is a feature is not. Name the job you want read, then check whether the trail can follow that job after the tap.