Change. We have all signed up for change and a lot of it this year. As a culture, we elected change in our government on the basis of “change we can believe in” and we are undergoing a massive financial and cultural change in our country. Change is a word that seems to be inner-twined in every conversation, yet change is often rebuked and even feared in basic parts of our lives. Its ironic, really… but this rebuke of change seems especially tied to technology that we use everyday.
Recently, Ikea decided to change its font for its print and online content from Futura to Verdana to better standardize its print and online design. You would think that font changes would not be contriversial, but there was indeed a backlash. “Ikea fans were outraged, finding Verdana less elegant than Futura,” according to Associated Press Writer Stephen Nasstrom. What this shows you is that a large part of your customer base will respond negatively to any design change, regardless how minor.
Facebook’s early 2009 redesign of its site was met with a seemingly massive backlash. Users even created Facebook groups protesting the changes. Accordingly to TechCrunch, 94 percent of users survey “don’t like the redesign.” 94 percent? Wow… that is a huge risk–what backlash! Now waves of Facebook users will flock to Bebo, right? That never happened and in fact quite the opposite has occurred But the survey results got me thinking about change in general and what really drives companies to take the leap to move beyond their own design conventions. In the end, Facebook not yielding to the cries of the user community had no negative impact on the site’s traffic and Facebook is still in a massive growth mode. And, the architectural changes enabled better mobile functionality and created new revenue options.
Recently, I needed to get my car serviced and was given a loaner car while in the shop. The loaner was a 2009 BMW 328i. It was basically was an updated version of my car. In addition to the outer appearance, BMW decided to change the interior ergonomics of the car substantially. I found myself confused by the relationship with design conventions that the new model held to with the changes they introduced. In fact, I was annoyed by most of the ergonomic changes and could not wait to get into my familiar older model. I thought the inclusion of all the car’s interior controls located on the center console was ingenious in the older model 3-series. The door controls all at finger distance from each other. Everything is in a logical, intuitive place makes one appreciate the simplicity and thought in the interior design. This subtle design decision set BMW from the mass market sedans and I love it.
But the new 3-series follows the pack in terms of interior ergonomics. The door/window controls are on the doors and the center console is just a console for storage and housing the shifter. The window controls are a stretch to reach and you have to think about where your fingers go to roll a window. I was annoyed more than you know about this change. I hated it. I love BMWs amber instrument panels and utter simplicity, even barren appointment of “tech” on the console. If I wanted a moving gadget bag, I would have bought an Infinity or Lexus. The BMW is a ultimate driving machine, not a computer game, right? But, the new 3-series includes more gadgetry than I expected. The changes in design created a sense of “I don’t like the redesign” feelings. I was not pleased with the evolution of my beloved 3.
As I started the car, I swore to never buy one of these new ones. Off to the Audi lot! But then I drove new 3 and understood that most of the changes were improvements on a seemingly perfect design. I adjusted in a few hours and my perspective changed and all of a sudden I realize this was no sellout car–it was a 3-series through and through.
If I were consulted on design changes by BMW, I would have held the designers back. I would demand the retention of all the aesthetics and ergonomics I cherished in my old model. My 3-series would stay the same, forever.
What this story really describes is that an entrenched and enthusiastic following is not the best judge of direction for a company. You cannot depend on your customers entirely to tell you what they want, need or even can adjust to. Planning strategic decisions on our seemingly inherent fear of change will force stagnation. If it were up to me, the 3-series I love would never change. It would just get faster, but the form and ergos would stay constant. Moving ergos around–not an option for me. So, I am not a good judge of design innovation for BMW. I am too wed to the design in place and not objective or able to be selfless.
When it comes to change, some companies move forward with the understanding that their customers are not the best judge of direction. Apple has never been a company to look back and is often criticized for leaving legacy customers behind on product updates. If it were left to Apple’s customers, we would still be using parallel ports for printers and the floppy disk drives would still be on every Mac and PC in the market–even though it was a useless storage option 5 years before its demise. Apple has trained its legions of followers to leave the past behind and accept change as part of the deal. You cannot survive the Apple community if you depend on consistency and predictability. Still, it stings when you learn your new Macbook Pro just lost its relevance to a new wave of interfaces. Take the new Apple LED Cinema Display. Apple left behind its own products that did not have the mini-DVI interface. If you don’t have a new Mac with the new video interface, this display is useless. Even those who have the first generation Macbook Air are out in the cold because micro-DVI has been retired as quickly as it was introduced.
Ticked off about thoughtless change? You can take it that way, but it is not thoughtless and in terms of Apple’s new display– it is a massive leap forward in design and interface technology. Its far better than anything out there and needs to exist to move the industry forward. Apple needed to push off legacy technology to move forward. Apple needed to leave behind VGA, DVI and Micro-DVI to pull it off, so they did without apology.
What we in the web development community need to remember is that usability testing and decisions based on user feedback alone will not drive innovation. Challenging convention and innovation sometimes comes from listening to your intuition, not the voices of the masses. Your product’s essence needs to remind users what they are driving by delivering the right experience–you might need to move the window controls to pull off the greater improvement.
~DK
About Dean Klotz
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