[IxDA Discuss] Designing for change (was: JOB: Interaction designer for GoDaddy.com)

[Doug Murray]

Schwab.com has done a pretty good job of managing change on their site. They
announced the pending change on the "positions" page months before they made the
change, complete with a link to see the new page (not a screen shot, but an
actual page with your stocks). Now, months after the change, they still have a
link back to the old page. 

The changeover was done in the light of day, not overnight. It was introduced
and explained, and users had plenty of time to get used to it. Personally, I
love the new page and always went right to the new version after it was
introduced. But, I guess some aren't as receptive to change when it comes to
their finances. Schwab accounted for the receptive and the reticent in the
change.

- Doug

Robert Hoekman, Jr. wrote: 

Indeed, and this is something I've thought about but not yet been able to
convince the dev teams to implement. Right now, they deploy the new version
of an app to a small percentage of the customer base, then wait for feedback
to roll in, make some tweaks, and roll out to a bigger portion of the
customer base, until everyone has switched.

No one is warned, and no one is given the choice to switch to the new
version, or the choice to switch back until things are smoothed out. That's
where the key is, and I'm definitely pushing for it.

-r-
On 11/29/06, Jared M. Spool <jspool at uie.com> wrote:
>
> Robert,
>
> Sounds like your doing some great things at GoDaddy. However...
>
> ... this sounds like the common sentiment that some people will
> always hate it when we change things and that's just a fact of life
> in design.
>
> When are we going to realize that we have to not only design changes,
> but design *for* change?
>
> http://www.uie.com/articles/embraceable_change/ 
>
> Just a thought...
>
> Jared

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