Often times, crappy interfaces sell because the new and improved ones offered to replace them don't pass the threshold required to make the investment to learn a new interface worth it. New interfaces can't just be better, they have to pass a threshold that makes the time investment, the monetary investment and the emotional investment something that can make a significant difference for the user or the business, or both. If it doesn't, the reaction from users or business executives often feels like a baby tossed out with the bath water proposition.
What's the threshold? That's going to require knowing what the most significant pain points are in an existing product or market, and then being able to not only solve those problems, but demonstrate easily how the new approach solves those issues as well. If you don't do that, then the new interface is often perceived as not worth it, and the mountain to climb to motivate adoption around it becomes significantly steeper. We worked on a project last year where we were able to help a company design a whole new interface for their web application product. It had a whole new aesthetic, new workflow, upgraded their technology and did a whole host of things better than the old. However, the real test of the new interface had nothing to do with the prettier icons, the cleaner data displays, the new code using upgraded, more robust technologies to drive the product. The real test was showing how to do a repetitive task that in the old interface tool some 20 to 27 clicks through multiple screens whereas in the new interface, the same task had been flattened to 3 clicks or so. That data point alone allowed the new interface to have a solid foundation to start from in getting people geared up and ready to make the massive change the new interface provided. To make this real for myself, I look at how often I need or want to purchase a new car. The mere thought of it makes my stomach turn and sends me into a depression at what is required to make that happen. Even when I'm going to buy a new car that will actually improve my overall well being, like when I bought my Honda Civic Hybrid last year. No matter how much I'm actually going to like the new car, the thought of having to switch everything over to the new one is not an activity I enjoy in the least. Most people who use our products treat changing, learning or adopting new interfaces like that, and who can blame them? Given that, its up to us to make such a heavy investment truly worth what it's going to cost people. And if we are, then we also have to make sure we demonstrate exactly how with a simple, clear and effective demo of the new interface. (FWIW, Steve Jobs is brilliant on how to demo new products to do exactly this.) -- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
