Fear of change

Based on my modest experience in web development, I noticed one depressing tendency - all more or less well-known projects are terribly afraid of changing something in their appearance. If a particular website has a certain audience (I’m talking about thousands, not hundreds), then even obvious improvements face some animal fear of change. But even when this fear is overcome, the project owner is faced with feedback from their users. Just recently, I read about how Facebook made a redesign and how users took it .

How Facebook redesign did

From the link above, you can see how users perceived the Facebook redesign - 94% did not approve of its changes, and only 6% donated a hand in favor. This figure would be terrifying if in life this proportion was not observed anywhere. But, plus or minus, it is observed everywhere, 5% come up with, move something forward, and the remaining 95% watch them and use the invented ideas, services, projects or products. If it were a different way, then mankind would probably have already mastered the neighboring galaxy now :)
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If we move further, we are faced with the question of adapting the user to something. If a user visits a site where he has never been before, then his “research and adaptation mode” is automatically activated. He looks around and finds out what he needs and what does not. If the user went to the site he visits regularly, and there it turned out to be not so, as he was used to, then the first reaction is rejection. There is no other way, we are so arranged. And when this user is immediately slipped a questionnaire about whether he likes it or not, he himself will answer as :) By the way, read the comments on the publication about Facebook. And you can vote on this link .

From this we can draw several conclusions:

1. Give the person a choice. Do not change the design immediately, give the opportunity to work with two versions (unless of course this does not affect the content).
2. If you change the design - give time to adapt, and then do a survey. The larger the pool of users, the longer this time.
3. And don't really pay attention to what the users are saying, most don't really care :)

On the other hand, I am always FOR change, because only in this way can one understand what can be done better and move towards something new. But I know a lot of projects (in Latvia), which already in a few years it’s time to change (delfi, one.lv, etc.), and things are there. Why? Yes, because the answer to the proposal for changes is standard: "Users will not understand and we will lose some of them that will run to the competition."

Come on, comon! If the price tags in the supermarket do not read from a distance of 1 meter and you are offered to increase them, then buyers will run from you? If you can squeeze through the front door only sideways, then extending the passage you lose those who are accustomed to squeeze sideways? Why do store owners trust product placement merchandisers? Why do the owners of portals do not trust the designers of their work? Why are they afraid to correct the mistakes made? All this for me is a big secret :)

From personal experience.

We somehow reworked the portal www.pokeroff.ru A portal with a very clear audience and objectives. At that time, he looked like this and already had a fairly large audience of regular visitors and users. But we have not spared anything except the logo :) Everything has been completely reworked, starting with the appearance and ending with the priorities of this or that content. It turned out such a project . And of course, right after the launch, users attacked the owners of the portal and charged us with the fact that now nothing was found, the navigation is not clear, the necessary functions were gone, etc. Turning on "ignore" we waited about a month. Do not believe it, even the most ardent supporters of the old design have adapted and were able to find everything. And the volume of the audience? And the volume since then continues to grow. And now we are reworking this project again, and again we are ready to hear displeased reviews :)

And Pokeroff is no exception, as an example we can cite many more different projects.

What to do

Gentlemen, owners of large and not-so-great projects - do not be afraid to make changes, there is nothing to worry about if these changes make the user's life easier, if they allow him to make more and spend less. And the user, he will always be dissatisfied :) I would gladly remake delfi.lv, one.lv, lursoft (Latvian Enterprise Register), ss.lv and many others. And of course I would have torn off the hands of those who did all these e-pakalpojumi (electronic state services in Latvia) and websites for state structures, but this is a topic for a separate post :)