5 ms·

I think you're missing an obvious dichotomy here. Better UI is not universal. And the absolute, hands down unquestionably best, UI that can possibly exist for

I think you're missing an obvious dichotomy here. Better UI is not universal. And the absolute, hands down unquestionably best, UI that can possibly exist for any given customer is the one they're already an expert in. Can a different UI end up being better for them? Sure. Will it be better the day it's released? No. The user has to pay a cost every time the UI changes, regardless of whether it's actually better for them or not (and it will never be better until much later, once they've become an expert in the new version). Worse - I see more and more companies optimize UIs for the "initial user experience" and onboarding new users (more paying customers). The sad truth is that many times that means dumbing down a much better UI for the "already expert" customer - just like putting training wheels on the bike is great for the person that's never biked, and utterly infuriating if you already know how to ride. This is why existing customer bases are so rarely fond of any change - regardless of whether they end up liking it in 3 months time. It has a real cost, right this second, and they're being asked to pay it.

lazide 4y ago
It’s also an existential risk for many business customers. If you already spent months training a new hire on how to get something working with all the different random tools and software they use, changing something meaningful means breaking that persons ability to do what they need to do for their job, at least for some time. Even changing something inconsequential will confuse some users for a bit, require making/updating new training guides, etc. If it’s a business on the edge or under during a stressful period? That can literally tip it over and make it non functional. That is especially true for small businesses.
- crazygringo 4y ago
  Business productivity software is usually much more slow-changing than consumer software, precisely for this reason. They know customers' training guides need to be rewritten so changes become a big deal. This is one of the reasons business productivity software becomes unwieldy after a while -- it's fine to add buttons and menus, you just can't change existing ones or what they do. So then version 5 will finally introduce the massive, desperately needed UI refactor after ten years, while plenty of clients just stay on version 4. (An example of this is the Blackbird CMS -- old Blackbird vs new Blackbird.)
  - lazide 4y ago
    Yup, until eventually it becomes unusable due to the sheer weight of cruft. Then, switch to new vendor or the next major version. Software Lifecycle for reals baby!
  - Silhouette 4y ago
    So then version 5 will finally introduce the massive, desperately needed UI refactor after ten years, while plenty of clients just stay on version 4. If your new product with ten years of improvements was so unattractive compared with the existing version your customers are currently using that they were choosing not to update, what does that say about the value to the customer of all those improvements? In the world before SAAS we saw both extremes often. Some products had incredible dev teams and people would upgrade relatively often even when each new version cost extra money. Other products barely produced an interesting change in several new versions over several years and users mostly didn't pay for those updates. SAAS is a convenient business model for the developers in the latter category because it locks in the ongoing revenues whether any future changes add value or not. They just need enough lock-in effects that once you've signed up you can't easily move to one of their competitors.

lazide 4y ago

It’s also an existential risk for many business customers. If you already spent months training a new hire on how to get something working with all the different random tools and software they use, changing something meaningful means breaking that persons ability to do what they need to do for their job, at least for some time. Even changing something inconsequential will confuse some users for a bit, require making/updating new training guides, etc. If it’s a business on the edge or under during a stressful period? That can literally tip it over and make it non functional. That is especially true for small businesses.

crazygringo 4y ago
Business productivity software is usually much more slow-changing than consumer software, precisely for this reason. They know customers' training guides need to be rewritten so changes become a big deal. This is one of the reasons business productivity software becomes unwieldy after a while -- it's fine to add buttons and menus, you just can't change existing ones or what they do. So then version 5 will finally introduce the massive, desperately needed UI refactor after ten years, while plenty of clients just stay on version 4. (An example of this is the Blackbird CMS -- old Blackbird vs new Blackbird.)
- lazide 4y ago
  Yup, until eventually it becomes unusable due to the sheer weight of cruft. Then, switch to new vendor or the next major version. Software Lifecycle for reals baby!
- Silhouette 4y ago
  So then version 5 will finally introduce the massive, desperately needed UI refactor after ten years, while plenty of clients just stay on version 4. If your new product with ten years of improvements was so unattractive compared with the existing version your customers are currently using that they were choosing not to update, what does that say about the value to the customer of all those improvements? In the world before SAAS we saw both extremes often. Some products had incredible dev teams and people would upgrade relatively often even when each new version cost extra money. Other products barely produced an interesting change in several new versions over several years and users mostly didn't pay for those updates. SAAS is a convenient business model for the developers in the latter category because it locks in the ongoing revenues whether any future changes add value or not. They just need enough lock-in effects that once you've signed up you can't easily move to one of their competitors.