4 ms·

>From an user perspective, that's awful. Only for a very tiny niche group of users. I'm part of that niche as well - but I recognize that most users love auto-

by Nadya 11y ago

>From an user perspective, that's awful. Only for a very tiny niche group of users. I'm part of that niche as well - but I recognize that most users love auto-updating things. They don't have to worry about updating, new features get pushed to them, etc. It's a great user experience for most people. Only a small number of power users ever touch the settings/option menu of the software they use and fewer would ever see a reason to "downgrade" to a previous version - let alone know how to go about doing so.

drdaeman 11y ago
Obviously, I don't have any statistics, but I think over the years I saw a lot of outcries when there were visible changes in various applications. So, I'm not sure it is really great experience for most people. Given that generally there is no way to roll back, I suppose most just learned to live with such things, whenever it's great for them or not so much. I may have a wrong idea, but I perceive it as a culture where user is nearly powerless against the almighty Developers' will. I still haven't gave up on my own preferences, yet. Fear that future will break me, though.
- scrollaway 11y ago
  Poor understanding of your users' needs and wants in an update has little to do with how the update is delivered.
  - drdaeman 11y ago
    I think it's more in area of respecting user freedoms. Either users can have an opinion whenever they like the changes or not. I just happen to prefer to be asked explicitly in a lot of cases. The issue is not silent updates (an option to have unattended upgrades in some places are godsend!), but in not generally having an option to prevent those and not having a way to roll unwanted ones back.
- Nadya 11y ago
  E: Scrollaway makes a good point in a sibling response. ======== An easy way would be to use telemetry to measure how many of your users change default settings. ;) I only have this from 4 years ago [0]. But is also something I've observed. > I think over the years I saw a lot of outcries when there were visible changes in various applications. Visual changes are typically seen as unwarranted. It's a huge risk with minor gains (UX of new users) by alienating old users and hoping 'they'll adapt'. But to touch on this a bit... Unhappy people are also the loudest. If a platform has 1,000,000 viewers and 1% change their settings and you screw with those settings - you're going to have 10,000 people who are pissed off and venting. Which can seem massive - and out of the 990,000 others maybe 2 or 3 might voice their approvals/thanks for the update? This is why many game studios ignore their forums. Forums are typically only a minority of the overall fan base, even if they're typically the most outspoken/loyal fans. [0] https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/09/14/do-users-change-their-settings/ https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/09/14/do-users-change-t...
  - drdaeman 11y ago
    True. I got a Windows 10 laptop recently and took a look around the OS. Relevant to the discussion, one thing was just brilliant - user satisfaction feedback buttons (the smiley/frowny faces in some apps). Hope such things help debiasing feedback.
- matchu 11y ago
  Philosophically I like the idea of the user being able to choose any version of the client, but that doesn't seem sustainable: while it's generally _nice_ to support old versions of your app and avoid breaking changes to the protocol, sometimes the cost to the developer would just be way too high. For many apps that communicate with a remote service, you're gonna have to eat _some_ update somewhere down the line.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

by Nadya 11y ago

drdaeman 11y ago

Obviously, I don't have any statistics, but I think over the years I saw a lot of outcries when there were visible changes in various applications. So, I'm not sure it is really great experience for most people. Given that generally there is no way to roll back, I suppose most just learned to live with such things, whenever it's great for them or not so much. I may have a wrong idea, but I perceive it as a culture where user is nearly powerless against the almighty Developers' will. I still haven't gave up on my own preferences, yet. Fear that future will break me, though.

scrollaway 11y ago
Poor understanding of your users' needs and wants in an update has little to do with how the update is delivered.
- drdaeman 11y ago
  I think it's more in area of respecting user freedoms. Either users can have an opinion whenever they like the changes or not. I just happen to prefer to be asked explicitly in a lot of cases. The issue is not silent updates (an option to have unattended upgrades in some places are godsend!), but in not generally having an option to prevent those and not having a way to roll unwanted ones back.
Nadya 11y ago
E: Scrollaway makes a good point in a sibling response. ======== An easy way would be to use telemetry to measure how many of your users change default settings. ;) I only have this from 4 years ago [0]. But is also something I've observed. > I think over the years I saw a lot of outcries when there were visible changes in various applications. Visual changes are typically seen as unwarranted. It's a huge risk with minor gains (UX of new users) by alienating old users and hoping 'they'll adapt'. But to touch on this a bit... Unhappy people are also the loudest. If a platform has 1,000,000 viewers and 1% change their settings and you screw with those settings - you're going to have 10,000 people who are pissed off and venting. Which can seem massive - and out of the 990,000 others maybe 2 or 3 might voice their approvals/thanks for the update? This is why many game studios ignore their forums. Forums are typically only a minority of the overall fan base, even if they're typically the most outspoken/loyal fans. [0] https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/09/14/do-users-change-their-settings/ https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/09/14/do-users-change-t...
- drdaeman 11y ago
  True. I got a Windows 10 laptop recently and took a look around the OS. Relevant to the discussion, one thing was just brilliant - user satisfaction feedback buttons (the smiley/frowny faces in some apps). Hope such things help debiasing feedback.
matchu 11y ago
Philosophically I like the idea of the user being able to choose any version of the client, but that doesn't seem sustainable: while it's generally _nice_ to support old versions of your app and avoid breaking changes to the protocol, sometimes the cost to the developer would just be way too high. For many apps that communicate with a remote service, you're gonna have to eat _some_ update somewhere down the line.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]