When I worked in technology support, as often as I received calls from users who needed help installing Office 2007, I also talked to users that were confused or angry about how different Office 2007 was from Office 2003.

You surely know of these kinds of people; sometimes I am even one of them. Users hate change, especially major changes without warning. If you knew how to use Word 2.0, you basically knew how to use all future versions, like Word 97 and Word 2003. No matter which version, no matter if it was the Mac or Windows version of Office, the interface was essentially the same. Just look at the difference between Word 2.0 and Word 2003:

Then Office 2007 came along, and suddenly shit hit the fan. The Microsoft Word that people had loved/hated all these years had suddenly vanished from the shelves, replaced by this unfamiliar, sinister impostor.

As it turns out, of course, things weren’t really that bad. Why? Mainly because upgrading from Word 2003 to Word 2007 was a purely optional (and sometimes rather expensive) affair. I doubt if even 10% of users over 30 have upgraded, although I’m sure many have installed the compatibility plug-in (which allows Word 2003 to open the 2007 file format, .docx).

Now let’s switch our focus over to another widely-used application, this time a web application. It hasn’t been around that long, but millions of people use it already: Facebook. Recently, Facebook went through a fairly major redesign that spawned dozens of anti-new-Facebook groups and hundreds of complaints on various forums on various websites and Facebook itself. The cry could be heard over and over again, no matter where one surfed: ‘I hate the new Facebook.’ Sure, there were also a lot of people who loved it, and the ones who hated it were probably more vocal, so in all likelihood, only 1 in 10 users really despised it.

But still, 1 in 10 users is a lot. Facebook has over 100 million users, so there are at least 10 million users who hate a website they use all the time. It’s a strange situation, isn’t it?

What users of web applications are starting to finally figure out is that the convenience and portability of web applications tends to come at a pretty terrible price: being forced into every new version the application vendor releases.

Another, more recent example is that of iGoogle, the configurable portal page service from Google. Google made some changes to the site recently, and immediately it triggered a wave of negative reactions from users. What choice do these users have, after all, if they don’t like the new version of a web application? None, apparently.

Except for one thing, which is to stop using the web application and find an alternative, either a different web application or a desktop application. Some are obvious (Google Docs has Microsoft Office and OpenOffice, Meebo has Pidgin and Adium and Miranda, and just about any webmail service can be used with a desktop email client), but others are less clear. What’s the desktop application alternative to Facebook?

I’ll tell you one thing: if I developed a lot of web applications for a living and a bunch of users complained to me about changes made to one of them, yet they all continued using the site, I probably wouldn’t pay attention to the changes.

And whaddaya know, despite all the ‘I hate the new Facebook’ groups, there’s still no option for the old interface.

One Response to “The new dark side of ‘web applications’”

1. iptydafu says:

   October 27, 2008 at 09:10

   Oh my fucking god! -Office 2007 is everything that’s wrong with America!

   That having been vented in a big chunky gush from my spleen–in fact, it’s not an elective lobotomy to the knowledge-set for most of us; but an implementation of new software to remain “industry standard.” -And delivered all-voila’ when you boot-up in the morning. If employers walked their staff through change, they’d likely be a hell of a lot happier about it. And screw the ones that don’t, because change has to happen. But if I’m walking in ready to sit down and write up a bunch of reports for a board meeting, and have NO idea how to do it; that’s a problem. And it’s been the biggest problem I’ve heard from anyone else who’s been updated.

   Facebook is a nightmare anyway you cut it. Office, however, would have been a much easier transition if everyone had known what they were in for ahead of time. -Let’s face it, Microsoft’s idea of “intuitive” is about as useful as pushing rope.