Aardvark Daily

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Stop fixing stuff that's not broken!

Lots of folk have been griping over Google's recent "facelift" changes to a number of the sites it operates.

Although I can't say I've noticed too much difference with the new GMail, I do find the new YouTube a PITA in may respects and that leads me to join in the chorus of "if it's not broken, don't fix it".

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of progress and improvement but what I do get annoyed with is change, seemingly just for the sake of change.

The fixation with "new and shiny" seems to be making life harder for websurfers and Net users.

Just when you start feeling really comfortable with a website, service or bit of software, some idiot comes along and improves the snot out of it -- leaving you right back where you started -- halfway down the learning curve.

The situation seems to be getting progressively worse and some announcements over the past few days serve to indicate just how bad things have already gotten.

For instance, the latest version of FireFox now includes "silent updates" which eliminate the need for users to actually invoke the usual update process.

Sounds great eh?

Well you might not find it so great when you turn on your computer, fire up your browser and suddenly find that it doesn't work the same way it did yesterday. New features and "improvements" may see dramatic changes to the software (as seems to happen all-too-often with FF) without warning. This unsolicited updating might just knock FF out of contention when it comes to enterprise-wide use. No sysadmin wants to start his day with hundreds of angry users who are complaining that "something's changed and I can't..."

I see that Peter Jackson's attempts to "improve" the cinematic experience is also creating some gripes amongst movie purists.

PJ believes that doubling the frame rate from 24 per second to 48 results in smoother movement and more realism in the theatre... unfortunately, large numbers of movie fanatics who have watched some preview footage from The Hobbit strongly disagree.

They claim that movies are *not* supposed to be so realistic and that Jackson's "improvements" have produced an experience that is more like watching TV than sitting in front of the traditional silver-screen.

So how do companies avoid angering their users whilst maintaining the push of progress and product-improvement?

Well here's a novel concept -- why not try asking people if they actually want the new features and improvements you're planning to offer?

Thanks to the power of the Net it has never been easier to get this kind of feedback from your users and customers, so why do so few actually seem to implement this critical aspect of ensuring customer satisfaction?

Maybe Google, Mozilla and Jackson have read too much of their own publicity and believe they know better than the people they expect to use their products. If that's the case then they're cruising for a bruising. There are plenty of other smart, innovative startups that will gladly listen to users and deliver what people really want.

History shows that "contempt" is the final stage before "collapse" in the evolution of so many businesses.

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