Users hate change
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Users hate change
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Re: Users hate change
#2I did not like the change from old reddit to new reddit.
Remember Digg v 1.0 to 2.0 and how it made it sink?
Re: Users hate change
#3This article is correct, but you can take it to a higher level of abstraction.
All change is interpreted by how it impacts the individual. The article laid out one possible scenario where this results in bad will. But it is broader than that. It is broader than product design. If you look at the people in your world, and think about how they will react to a change, you'll get a picture of how a change will come across, whether that is a product change, a process change, an organizational change, etc.
At the end of it all, it boils down to empathy - the more you can think about change in the context of how it impacts specific people, the better you'll be able to manage it.
Re: Users hate change
#4I just think of Microsoft when I read these.
Every time they change something in Windows, they never take the old thing away but instead keep both. Which means there's a myriad of ways to get to the control panel. And there's multiple variants of the control panel UI...
Outlook is another good example, there's 3 different UI's where we can add/remove accounts.
Result: New users use the new (default) UI, old users use the old UI, admins use what's quickest.
Re: Users hate change
#5My pet theory is that every software product has a "peak version". Before that peak version, the product is not yet in a complete state, and it is fairly obvious, both for the developer and user, what features are missing. Once the peak version is reached, new features are not added because they improve the product, but to justify selling the product again to existing customers, and to 'keep the team busy'.
Instead of really improving the product, features become checkboxes on the roadmap. Which eventually results in degrading the quality of the product, it becomes bloated, the UX becomes confusing (especially to new users), and existing features start to suffer because the "maintenance surface" becomes bigger and bigger.
What should happen of course is that the product's feature set is frozen at the "peak version", and only bug fixes and optimizations are happening, that's a hard sell to the bean counters of course, especially with subscription models and "software as a service" which they like so much. From the customer's point of view, bug fixes and optimizations are expected to come for free, because they are fixing defects in the original product and don't add any value, right?
Eventually progress and success is measured in features added, not in satisfaction of individual customers. And as long as KPIs are looking alright - meaning the 'average customer' (which doesn't exist btw) isn't pissed off enough to look elsewhere, all is good, even though everything is terrible.
Re: Users hate change
#6I did not like the change from old reddit to new reddit. Remember Digg v 1.0 to 2.0 and how it made it sink?
New Reddit remains slow, which engendered badwill.
New Twitter, on the other hand, messes up its primary product - the users' feed - to give unfollowed content. It breaks the idea that the user is curating their personal feed, and that is problematic.
But it's fast and acceptably customizable.
Re: Users hate change
#7I just think of Microsoft when I read these. Every time they change something in Windows, they never take the old thing away but instead keep both. Which means there's a myriad of ways to get to the control panel. And there's multiple variants of the control panel UI... Outlook is another good example, there's 3 different UI's where we can add/remove accounts. Result: New users use the new (default) UI, old users use…
Agreed. The end result may be that Windows 8 and 10 are inconsistent UI-wise, but it's also the only reason I'm not really angry at them - because I know that if I can't do something in the new, dumb, infantilized UI, I can always do it in the traditional, pre-Windows 8 UI.
Re: Users hate change
#8This is just curmudgeonliness backed by nothing at all.
You probably shouldn't do major redesigns with no real benefit to the user (I'm looking at you, reddit), but if you're adding or improving functionality, then feel free to incrementally improve your site constantly. People will get used to constant small improvements and will miss them if they stop.
Users don't hate change, they hate arbitrary change that forces them to learn how to use your site again, or that removes features they enjoy.
Re: Users hate change
#9This is just curmudgeonliness backed by nothing at all. You probably shouldn't do major redesigns with no real benefit to the user (I'm looking at you, reddit), but if you're adding or improving functionality, then feel free to incrementally improve your site constantly. People will get used to constant small improvements and will miss them if they stop. Users don't hate change, they hate arbitrary change that forces…
It's not "curmudgeonliness", it's the real deal. And the article makes your point, but in different words.
Adding stuff itself doesn't disturb anything. But if the added stuff interferes with existing features in any way - including UI friction and performance degradation - people are gonna get angry ("badwill" will be created). Doubly so if you start removing features.
It's important point to keep repeating, because accumulation of badwill doesn't show in the telemetry, so data-obsessed companies don't get it.
Re: Users hate change
#10I love how the author shouts from the rooftops the following
>This argument is both incredibly entitled and terribly egocentric (...)
While this whole post reeks with entitlement and egocentrism - but from his perspective, so that is OK!
To me, it feels like the author is incapable of empathising with a larger user base than himself and only thinks about his benefit and how the changes affect him and how he uses the product.
>Let me be clear: when I buy a product I am paying for what the product can do for me now. It fulfils a need that I currently have. I am not paying money out of my own pocket for a faint hope that the product may do something in the vague and nebulous future.
This is simply not true. Depending on what you buy (a physical product like a bike) or a software subscription (like photoshop), you get those upgrades whether you want it or not. You don't want it? Then DONT BUY THE PRODUCT. Customers have the ultimate power: voting with their wallet. You don't like it? You go to the freaking competitor!
I understand the authors frustrations but customers have the ultimate final say in anything by voting with their wallet.