The User Experience Designer’s Anthem – Part 2

(Image from Daniel Heaf’s Flickr)

Whitney Hess, you were indeed on to something when you declared Coldplay’s Fix You as the User Experience Designer’s Anthem.

Last night, I was driving home when I suddenly realized that The Klaxons ‘Not Over Yet’ could be a user experience anthem, too.

So, for the benefit of folks who haven’t heard of The Klaxons (or haven’t been to  Twilight Action Girl), here are the lyrics:

The Klaxons ‘Not Over Yet’

I’ll live for you
I’d die for you
Do what you want me to
I’ll cry for you
My tears will show
That I can’t let you go

It’s not over, not over, not over, not over yet
You still want me, don’t you
It’s not over, not over, not over, not over yet
Cos I can see through you
It’s not over, not over, not over, not over yet

Don’t let me down
Don’t make a sound
Don’t throw it all away
Remember me
So tenderly
Don’t let it slip away

It’s not over, not over, not over, not over yet
You still want me, don’t you
It’s not over, not over, not over, not over yet
Cos I can see through you
It’s not over, not over, not over, not over yet

Ooooh…
Yeahh…

I’ll live for you
I’d die for you
Do what you want me to
I’ll cry for you
My tears will show
That I can’t let you go

It’s not over, not over, not over, not over yet
You still want me, don’t you
It’s not over, not over, not over, not over yet
Cos I can see through you
It’s not over, not over, not over, not over yet
You still want me, don’t you
It’s not over, not over, not over, not over yet
‘Cos I can see through you.

Thanks for the inspiration, Whitney.

Why does MindManager Pro rock?

Seriously, it rocks.

Lately, I’ve been using it to sketch out site maps the size of Wisconsin. OK, well, maybe not the size of Wisconsin, which is 65,498 square miles, by the way. But hey, you get the idea.

You don’t even have to be an IA to love this stuff; if you spend hours every day drawing flowcharts or mapping out processes or even if you’re just looking for a brainstorming tool, this is it. I’ve ranted about stuff like Freemind and WriteMaps before, but this stuff is just so much more incredibly on point. Just try it out.

How Vista relates to website redesigns

Ever wondered what you can learn about website redesigns from the old XP versus Vista debate?

Well, I think the underlying reason why a lot of XP users are still resisting the switch to Vista is because the latter is just so visually different. I don’t think it’s got anything to do with actual brand loyalty or software compatibility.

I think just boils down to a case of visual familiarity.

As blogger Charles Engelke says in his post “Dumping Vista“, perhaps there is a layer of complexity that needs to be dealt with in order to get the most out of the operating system.

In other words, there’s a big learning curve to get past, a big visual difference between Old and New. So big, in fact, that it’s not only enough to put you off experimenting with it, it’s also big enough to put you off even liking it.

So, how come Mac users never complain about this kind of stuff? Ever overheard a Mac user complaining about how their new OS isn’t as easy to use as their old OS?

I think that’s because Mac OS X updates always introduce incremental changes.

In other words, they’ve paced themselves with their OS updates, and instead of changing everything visually from top to bottom, they’ve retained the same look and feel of their interface. They’ve kept things familiar, so that people don’t have to learn as much about the system as PC users usually do, because each Windows update looks dramatically different from the last one.

Like Windows XP and Vista.

So, how does this apply to web redesigns?

It’s simple: Prefer incremental visual change to a complete redesign, ceteris paribus.

The less you do to change an interface that’s been around long enough for everyone to get familiar with and comfortably use, the less resistance you’ll encounter that’s associated with learning something new.

I think people look for their favorite visual cues when they browse, and retaining as many of these cues, while improving the functionality and usability of a website, is the key to creating a redesign that people won’t resist.

Common sense, no?