> To me, it feels like the author is incapable of empathising with a larger user base than himself and only thinks about his benefit and how the changes affect him and how he uses the product.
I disagree. "Users hate change" is a meme that's generally accepted in the industry; the post applies empathy to dig into the reasons why it seems that "users hate change".
> Customers have the ultimate power: voting with their wallet. You don't like it? You go to the freaking competitor!
"Voting with your wallet" in a non-commodity market doesn't work. Doubly so if we're talking about complex products with complex feature sets, making each essentially an unique animal. Triply so if the "feature" of "not mindlessly messing with the UI/featureset" is impossible to predict ahead of time.
If your favorite what ever changed, do you like it? Or do you immediately go what is this? Regardless if it was good/needed.
There is obvious parts where a change may be good or needed, and those are easier to accept. But if you deem X to be good enough does a change that increases the ability to do Y speed by like 5% really matter if it changes everything. No.
"Voting with your wallet" always matters. Doesn't matter if it's free or not. It always matters. If half of anyones customers stopped using the product because of a redesign, they would consider alternatives. The problem is people complain and stay, and 5 weeks later they are used to it and don't care anymore until the next change.
"Voting with your wallet" always matters. Doesn't matter if it's free or not. It always matters.
Do you understand how discouraging the network effect is on free products? Any social media app that breaks out is quickly bought by the big players and they reset the score again.
I disagree. "Users hate change" is a meme that's generally accepted in the industry; the post applies empathy to dig into the reasons why it seems that "users hate change".
> Customers have the ultimate power: voting with their wallet. You don't like it? You go to the freaking competitor!
"Voting with your wallet" in a non-commodity market doesn't work. Doubly so if we're talking about complex products with complex feature sets, making each essentially an unique animal. Triply so if the "feature" of "not mindlessly messing with the UI/featureset" is impossible to predict ahead of time.