Change will usually be met with resistance simply because we like our comfort zones.

Change will usually be met with resistance simply because we like our comfort zones.

Whenever we’re on the verge of a new advance in technology, we have to evaluate what it’s going to cost to leave old conventions behind. The things that evolve slowly just grow with features and capabilities progressively added; sometimes the process is smooth and organic, other times it’s totally haphazard. We grow and change our behavior as and when we notice these new additions, or curiosity drives us to actively discover them. Computers, gadgets, software and even websites usually see this as the best way to grow: it requires less effort and imagination, and even users who demand improvements like things to stay familiar! This is how pretty much every incremental upgrade that we see today works. The risk that companies take is to make their changes so timidly that they aren’t ever discovered and used.

On the other hand, some people thrive on being disruptive. They believe in total reinvention; remorselessly killing the old to make way for the new. They make unpopular decisions, destroy comfort zones, and force people to see outside the boxes they’ve been cramped up inside. It’s a very difficult decision to make: people don’t always take kindly to being jolted out of inertia. Change, whether or not it’s ultimately for the better, will usually be met with resistance simply because we like our comfort zones.

People will even go to great lengths to restore a disrupted status quo. Microsoft turned the traditional menus-and-toolbars convention on its head with Office 2007 because they had grown so out of hand that no one could find what they wanted, yet it created confusion and an add-on that simulated the classic interface became wildly popular. People have definitely warmed up to the new style now, but it isn’t perfect and does have its own problems.

Apple decided people should use email instead of MMS and that copy-paste functions were unnecessary in the iPhone, so people simply cracked their software and installed third-party workarounds. They came across as high-handed and out of touch with reality. Software updates over the years added these features, but they feel grafted on instead of natural.

We can’t expect progress if we’re bogged down supporting old legacy products and behaviors. Some things will have to change completely, but such “surgical strikes” need to be managed well and even publicized well to avoid people instinctively rejecting them.