There’s a flip side to this. If you change the UI for no reason, people get upset. For example, the latest iOS update flipped the speaker and mute buttons during a call. Why? No improvement was made, it’s just frustrating.
I'd go a step further: if you change the UI for no functional reason, you are a bad person who is causing needless consternation, confusion, and productivity loss. Even if you believe you have a functional reason, you had better think really long and hard about whether the supposed improvement you want is worth the pain of every single user needing to adapt to that change.
>I'd go a step further: if you change the UI for no functional reason, you are a bad person who is causing needless consternation, confusion, and productivity loss.
This appears to be not true for the OS (but only for Apps / websites). I'd say, for personal devices, folks expect a shiny new UI every OS update. For ex: iOS and Android are always in contention for who changes UI the most, from one version to another.
Besides, styling changes and form changes are not the same.
>I'd say, for personal devices, folks expect a shiny new UI every OS update.
A 99% of folks could not care less, when they're not downright annoyed by the UI changes. There has been major reactions on UI changes (from Office, Gmail Windows, Gnome, iOS and macOS to Facebook). There have been in comparison crickets about the UI not "updating fast enough", and those are mostly from designer types (like the stupid "skeuomorphic" hoopla a decade ago).
A small minority of designers and superficial people is the one making any noise about UI needing to be updated every time.
I really enjoy UI changes on software. They feel a lot like redecorating/renovating your home. Suddenly your device feels fresh and exciting again, and usually more capable than before.
As long as they aren’t broken or removing large amounts of useful functionality. The only redesign I’ve ever disliked is the Reddit one, and only because it still doesn’t work properly.
Personally, I'd prefer not to get a shiny new UI every update...
I do the same things with my phone I always did, I don't want to relearn the UI/Workflow just to get back to where I started.
The next Windows version should be called Windows Legacy.
Remove all the objectively (from the perspective of a non-oblivious user) stupid stuff that 10 and 11 added including half-baked UIs, extra clicks, inconsistencies, random forced changes, 'AI', etc.
How many of us have encountered 'Legacy' systems that get a bad wrap but are actually responsible for everything?
Eventually Legacy will have a positive connotation. So let's get to that now and resume improving the internals unless there's actually something else to do.
And for those who bring up being afraid of change I propose Windows Random Change edition for you.
Mozilla-related forums are currently full of complaints about the new design of Thunderbird. It has also flipped the UI with no option of reverting it back other than using an unsupported CSS hack: https://i.imgur.com/9xzJjtr.png
