Redesigning the redesign: what do we think about change?
News of yet another possible Flickr redesign prompts a few thoughts on the constant updating of our favorite apps. I have watched closely the development of Flickr over the course of most of the last decade, from its beginnings, and the ups and downs that have followed Yahoo!’s purchase, all accompanied by numerous redesigns and recent rethinks.
How should we respond to these increasingly frequent changes to the apps we use? We have become accustomed to our devices asking us for permission—and not even that if we have pre-approved the service—to update apps periodically. Rarely a week goes by without such an event, and we all have apps that we update more often than we use. Over time, we have gotten used to a reality in which it is perfectly normal to open an app only to discover that the interface has changed, affecting the way we use it.
In my case, and my profile is one that many would describe as inclined to innovation, my response is usually one of resignation. I very rarely note any changes to the app in question that I like—often the opposite is the case—and most of the time there is little to do but simply sigh and get on with life.
To be honest, I can’t remember the last time that I found changes to an app to be of any use; I can remember any number of times when they caused me unexpected problems. I am skeptical about aesthetic changes: I have no problem with the return to flat design after an age of three-dimensional graphics, but on the whole these things are largely frivolities, and do not provide any value.
From a period when there were few changes, and that generally responded to new approaches or the development of new functions, we have moved to a time of constant changes, downloads and reinstallations, most of which seem impulsive, along the lines of redesigning something for the sake of it. I’m no nostalgia freak, but I am beginning to miss the time when opening an app or a program meant knowing what I was going to find.
And all this is affecting the way designers work: before, considerable care was taken not to touch elements that the user was familiar with. Now, the attitude seems to be, “take it or leave it”: at best a few explanatory words as one opens the app, or as often as not, no explanation. Even on the rare, increasingly rare, occasions when users protest, these are quickly forgotten. Don’t get used to the look and feel of your applications: they have shorter and shorter lives.
So how do you feel about these changes, which seem to appear almost on a daily basis? Do they bother you? Do you like them? Or couldn’t you care less? Should we get used to the idea that this is now the new “normal”?
(En español, aquí)
