‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’
goes a famous saying. When I was chatting with someone in office a few days
back, we had a conversation around the changing User Interfaces and User
Experiences in the modern applications (commonly called as the UI/UX in Tech
lingo). The conversation was more focused on why customers resist change and
are comfortable with the older UI however crappy it might be. A small
conversation it was, but triggered thoughts in me as I had been pondering
around this point in the recent past.
If you are in India, there is a
good probability that you would have used IRCTC website at least once in the
recent past to book train tickets. CRIS (Centre for Railway Information Systems)
took a major initiative to revamp the IRCTC booking website and make the
website feature rich and improve the User Experience. It was well known that
older website was not so great, but it got the job done and people got used to
it. The newer website took some time to get used to and more importantly there
was only one key question around, ‘Where do I Login?’ For some reason, IRCTC
decided to focus on new bookings and threw up the journey details right at the
centre of the page and Login went somewhere into some menu. For a lot of people
who just wanted to cancel the tickets, they were not able to find the Login and
had a horrid time. The earlier website started with a Login. It might have been heavily inspired by the
Redbus/Makemytrip websites, but the purpose is not the same. Today they have
kept a red coloured Login button right at the top. But why change something
that was working perfect?
When you design a new webpage or website, UI/UX takes the precedence. The impression you create, the placement of information and buttons, the fluidity and the navigation matters. But when you already have a solid user base who is comfortable with the interface, it is necessary to think much before changing the way things work.
Cricinfo has been another example
in the recent past. Cricinfo has been a goto website for any cricket lover for
a long time since we started tracking matches on the web. Famously their
servers crashed the day Sachin scored the first double century in ODI. That’s the
traffic they had. Ever since, CricBuzz came into picture with increased focus
on Mobile App, a lot of users went switching over. Cricinfo decided it was time
to revamp the website to fit into any gadget and became increasingly cluttered.
It took more time to open the website, the commentary often doesn’t loads
properly. Comments in the articles were one of my favourite features. There
were only a handful of readers, but you knew most of them and looked forward to
reading their perspective. Cricinfo decides that the volumes are not enough.
When I tried to reach out, I get a reply that I can still comment on Facebook. Why
move from a smaller intelligent sect to a larger garbage sect? There goes the
user experience! The only good thing with Cricinfo now is that they still have
quality reports from Sidharth Monga, Andrew Miller, Daniel Bretig, George
Dobell and the likes.
More often than not, companies
design new websites and believe that the features are intuitive enough for the
user to figure out on their own. Around 2 years back, Airtel revamped their
website with a lot of focus on material design and fresh icons. Earlier, there
was a clear ‘Login’ button available and I was lost for a few weeks as to where
it has gone. Only when someone randomly told me that they have replaced the
wording to a person Icon, I realized that it is still in the same old place.
Quora is another example of
consistently changing UI. The prime components of Quora is quite simple –
Questions, Answers, Topics, Upvote, Downvote, Share, Search. The UI team are an
enthusiastic bunch who cannot retain the design for a few months together. They
move buttons from one place to another, replace words with icons, bring new
icons and get back to word. Interestingly there a few questions in Quora itself
as to why the platform has got such inconsistent UI.
Gmail has a good example of how
to alter the User Interface without affecting the User Experience. They provide
a guided tour when they get into a new interface. They still enable you to
retain the older version for sometime before it is scrapped. And the core of
the design remains the same. The wordings still remain the same and most of the
times are the same place. You don’t suddenly start searching for old features.
Quite often, the software
providers allow you to use the older version for a longer timeframe even after
launching a new interface. The issue is that they donot let you flow smoothly
from the older interface to the newer one. They don’t provide you with guided
tours or guided trainings. And in most cases, the revamp is hard to adapt too.
While the purpose of revamping
the UI will be to increase adoption and satisfy the user community, more often
than not, it leads to the opposite.
Happy Reading!
