Friday, September 24, 2004

Just A Standard Reminder

One of the things you learn as a UI designer* is that people hate change. A mediocre familiar UI will be rated higher than a new UI that allows the user to do the same task faster and with less errors. This is especially so if the users have no control over the which UI is put in front of them. Over time they will learn to appreciate the new UI if it is indeed better. The lesson is to not get discouraged by negative reactions when a new UI is rolled out to users outside of the beta- or test-groups, few are the UIs that are so radically better that they have instant appeal over the familiar one.