Facebook’s Users Don’t Like Change — ReadWriteWeb
Users don’t like change, and as a product becomes more popular, users will grow ever more resistant to change.
The entire article (about Facebook’s contentious changes to their News Feed) distills to that one sentence. It’s not a Facebook thing1, it’s a people thing.
Really, I grow tired of all this resistance to change. While I’ve been there too — it’s easy to get habituated — it’s annoying to hear. Microsoft Office 20072, Firefox 3, Safari 4, BlackBerry, iPhone, etc. etc.
It would seem that if people had their way, interfaces would become static (at some unspecified point) and remain there. Rather than fixing quirks, users would simply habituate to them. And there would be little room for innovation.
I understand that designers/engineers don’t always get things right, but especially with computers, there is a lot of change from year to year, and that’s a good thing. An inclination to embrace change would go a long way to enjoying the dynamic world of technology. 
5 Comments
Amen. I think if they had their way we’d all still be running Windows 3.1
For the record, I’m very very glad of the changes to 2007. It makes so much more sense, once you can get off the old system.
@Don: Without mice too.
@Dan: Yes, precisely my point. The learning curve is certainly there, but it’s worth it.
I believe its the nature of human beings. People have always been highly resistant to any kind of change.
I hope to never be a bitter old person clinging to the past. I hope to grow old first though. =P
Tru: Yes, I too. Between our work (in which we espouse this mentality all the time) and in writing this post, I hope not to eat my words later in life.
PS: I, too, was once a neophyte.