Managing Startups: Best Blog Posts

Chapter 31. Sometimes It’s Not the Change They Hate

Laura Klein

There has been a lot of discussion in the design world recently about “change aversion.” Most of the articles about it seem to be targeting the new Google redesign, but I’ve certainly seen this same discussion happen at many companies when big changes aren’t universally embraced by users.

Change aversion is a real thing. Often people don’t like something different just because they’re used to the old way. Once they get used to the new way, they discover all the wonderful new features and are happy with the new change.

But sometimes your users’ rage isn’t change aversion. Sometimes your new design actually sucks.

So, before you blame your users, you should figure out if it’s change aversion, or if you really screwed something up. Ask yourself the following questions.

Did You Do Any Sort of User Testing Before Launch?

This is an important one. Sometimes people complain about a product because it has changed. Other times they complain because the product makes them feel stupid or it prevents them from doing what they want to do.

Most often, products make people feel stupid because the products are hard to use.

It’s very possible that the changes you made to your product have made common tasks that the user is used to performing harder to do. Yes, the user may eventually learn to perform the tasks the new way, but that new way may be legitimately more difficult! You may even be reducing the amount of time the user spends performing ...