Graceful Upgrades

Tags: programming

Dear reader, I’m going to make some educated guesses about you. You are a software developer, maybe with a bit of operations experience. You buy computer gear, gadgets, and assorted electronic appliances as much for fun as for work and utility. You know how much RAM is in your computer and how fast it is. You enjoy most upgrades because upgrades bring new features and fix old bugs.

You are not like your users. Most of your users tolerate computers and software because managing life without them is tough today. They buy computers only when they must, and they upgrade software only when the upgrade is automatic, or when their accountant mentions that the old version of Quick Books Pro won’t automatically calculate payroll tax correctly after the first of the month. They are writing, calculating, and analyzing under deadlines. They may have learned about skeuomorphic design in the New York Times, but the concept did little more than raise their eyebrow and elicit a shrug.

Your users organize their lives and work with our software. They learned to use our systems cautiously, but they’ve grown confident over time. They trust our software and us by extension. Don’t betray that trust by radically redesigning a user interface without including a way to guide users through the changes. If your software includes a “new user orientation” feature, you’re already ahead of the crowd. Consider showing that to all of your user after a major upgrade. You, I, and our friends will quickly swat it away without a second thought, but our more cautious and careful users will appreciate a hand held tour of the new interface they’ll command.