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by thih9 820 days ago
What if it improves your experience with the tool? For example, the page that annoyed you because it would load 3 seconds now loads instantly?

This could be even not because of some flawed initial design, but due to unrelated technology advancements that are available just now.

1 comments

Performance improvements that don't force me to adapt my workflow are great! Making a page load faster is always a good thing. They're also not super visible. I think there's a theory of this from game design where something like 100ms is just as annoying as 500ms, but get it below ~30ms and you're golden. I've forgotten what it's called.
Performance improvements are just an example.

In any case - looks like we’ve found a category of UX changes that you enjoy: something that forces you to adapt your workflow, just in a way that makes it better for you.

> In any case - looks like we’ve found a category of UX changes that you enjoy: something that forces you to adapt your workflow, just in a way that makes it better for you.

Could you please unpack this? I don't understand. I certainly didn't intend to say anything like that, in fact actually almost exactly the opposite. My claim is that improving page load times has no bearing one way or the other on my workflow. It doesn't make me learn anything new, it just makes the things I already do quicker.

Sure. My point is that this is still a UX change, it’s just positive for you.

What if there was a UX overhaul (again, possible just now for unrelated reasons) with a minor learning curve that would let you do things you already do, only quicker?

I’m basically presenting adapting to a new UI as adapting to the faster page load.

And vice versa, we could find people unhappy about the improved page load speeds; perhaps some plugin manufacturer now needs to do some extra work on their product because pages load faster than they expected.

> I’m basically presenting adapting to a new UI as adapting to the faster page load.

But I as a user don't have to do anything to adapt to a faster page load. Probably I won't even notice it. If you change the UI out from under me--even if it actually improves it--then I have to learn your new clever UI and that breaks my focus. It imposes a cost on me that I did not consent to. Instead of getting work done, I have to learn your new UI. So these things are completely different.

EDIT: To phrase it another way, what is the justification for your UI "improvement"? I claim the reason you have to make an improvement at all is that you released your product before it was finished. You shouldn't do that. If I'm paying for your product I'm not your "beta tester" so don't treat me like one.

EDIT2: Another way to look at it: your UX is your public API. Once you release it, that's final.

> perhaps some plugin manufacturer now needs to do some extra work

As a user, I couldn't care less how much work needs to be done, and who needs to do it. I just want the tool to work the same day in and day out.