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Users hate change

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Re: Users hate change

#21

Post by flohofwoe »

DougN7 wrote: post #15
flohofwoe wrote: post #5

My 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 o…

Keeping bean counters shouldn’t be the goal, but everyone does like to keep eating. What do you suggest for keeping the business healthy while not making things terrible?

I don't have a solution of course. We need a revolutionary idea like the "subscription model for software", but for user happiness, maybe there's a middle way which doesn't end in poverty for the software developer ;) UX designers leaving their ivory towers to get an idea how the real world works would be a good start. Somehow we managed to turn the positive idea of an "update" into something most users are hating.

Re: Users hate change

#22

Post by kbanana »

nemacol wrote: post #11
tmikaeld wrote: post #4

I 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 real kick in the beans from MS is the new UI lacks anything beyond basic functionality in the new UI. For example, Win10 (1803) Mouse settings you can modify: Left/Right handed, Scroll Wheel lines, Scroll inactive windows when you hover. For every other change you have to click "Additional mouse options" and are taken to the old UI. MS Win10, and to a lesser extent Server 2016-19 has increased the number of click…

I can search for control panel options just fine in Windows 10. Not on my machine right now, but searching for "mouse" brings up both the new settings page and the control panel one just below.

Re: Users hate change

#23

Post by MereInterest »

DougN7 wrote: post #15
flohofwoe wrote: post #5

My 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 o…

Keeping bean counters shouldn’t be the goal, but everyone does like to keep eating. What do you suggest for keeping the business healthy while not making things terrible?

To start branching out into additional software. Rather than shoehorning a feature into a product that doesn't need it, make that feature be a standalone product.

Re: Users hate change

#25

Post by mrunkel »

flohofwoe wrote: post #5

My 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 o…

The problem with your theory is that "peak version" is different for every user of the software.

Re: Users hate change

#26

Post by forgotmypwd123 »

bobbylarrybobby wrote: post #20
nemacol wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real kick in the beans from MS is the new UI lacks anything beyond basic functionality in the new UI. For example, Win10 (1803) Mouse settings you can modify: Left/Right handed, Scroll Wheel lines, Scroll inactive windows when you hover. For every other change you have to click "Additional mouse options" and are taken to the old UI. MS Win10, and to a lesser extent Server 2016-19 has increased the number of click…

Feature parity

It already has feature parody. Like how the UWP version of the remote desktop client doesn't allow you to paste files from your PC to the remote host, while the old version does. Hilarious.

Re: Users hate change

#27

Post by vasili111 »

The most important downside for me of website/software UI redesign is that I already know where to look for what I am looking for. For example, reddit, I am comfortable with old design and do not want to spend my time on exploring new design, I do not want to spend time on it because I have lot of other things to spend my time on.

Re: Users hate change

#28

Post by bla3 »

I've seen many UI rollouts that carefully track user happiness metrics. All UI changes have in common that user happiness goes down for a short time after the change -- but for good changes, it goes back up and to an even higher level than before. So it's expected that right after a change people are unhappy, which is where Nielsen's (sensible) suggestion comes from.

The problem is of course that UX designers get so used to dismissing that initial criticism that they sometimes dismiss valid criticism that leads to long-term user unhappiness as well.

Re: Users hate change

#29

Post by diggan »

mrunkel wrote: post #25
flohofwoe wrote: post #5

My 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 o…

The problem with your theory is that "peak version" is different for every user of the software.

The solution is that every deployable version of the service should be usable on it's own and users should be able to chose exactly what version they are locked on to. Or they can choose to live on bleeding-edge and always get the latest updates.

Wishful thinking maybe

Re: Users hate change

#30

Post by justbaker »

qrbLPHiKpiux wrote: post #2

I 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?

>Remember Digg v 1.0 to 2.0 and how it made it sink?

I do -- Digg absolutely disappeared overnight. I almost forgot about it entirely but the phrase "digg it" reminded me of it.

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