Computer software has become more and more complex as advances in technology permit substantially more functionality to be provided to the user, a phenomenon which has led some people to describe today's heavily-featured software as "bloated". Despite the prevalence of this trend, the impact of complexity on the user has received little attention in the research community. We describe a research agenda that addresses this problem. Study One, a comprehensive study looking at the experience of 53 users of Microsoft Word, showed that there is a great variation across users in terms of the number of features used and their desire to have many options available. These findings point to personalization as a promising design solution to "bloated" software and lead directly to Study Two which evaluated a multiple-interface prototype for Microsoft Word. The prototype consisted of 3 interfaces, one of which was personalized to the user's individual needs, between which the user could easily toggle. The personalized interface was constructed through Wizard of Oz methodology; no artificial intelligence was used but rather participants requested the researcher to make modifications to their interface. Four participants used the prototype in the context of their everyday work for a 2 to 3 month period. Results from Study Two encouraged further refinement of the prototype to include a mechanism through which users can easily construct their own personalized interface. The goal of the forthcoming Study Three is to evaluate the refined prototype and to compare it to the adaptive interface of Microsoft Word 2000, an interface that takes an alternate approach to mitigating software "bloat". The field study will involve 20 participants who will be exposed to both interfaces in the context of their everyday word processing tasks. It is expected that participants will be more satisfied and feel a greater sense of control while using the multiple-interface prototype as compared to the adaptive interface.