When we work with clients on UI redesigns for existing sites, one of the considerations that invariably comes up is how much change current site users will tolerate. Sometimes the fear of disrupting the current experience, however flawed that experience might be, has the potential to stifle innovation and prevent breakthroughs that could really benefit all users — both current and new.
In fact, if you ask people directly about potential changes to their work flow, they will likely tell you that they’d rather keep their current routines, thankyouverymuch, than have to learn something new.
We humans are pretty darn adaptable, though. Turns out some innovative research over a century old demonstrated our ability to effect an “experience flip.” The research method? Inversion goggles. The result? Within 3-5 days of seeing everything upside down, people can “rewire” themselves to adapt to this startling change in experience.
You can read about the research at graphpaper.com.
The takeaway? Don’t shoot down an approach to your redesign for fear of disrupting users. If the adaptation effort pays off with a much improved experience, your users will most likely thank you in the end.
Via Daring Fireball.
Leave a Reply