While catching up on my reading the other day, I found this article over at Infoworld called – Mobile Apps Death Wish. You may call the title a little melodramatic, but it got me to think about my habit of like change and it’s impact on my users.
The author of the piece goes on a bit of rant on how newer UI techniques are actually making it harder to find information and the over abundance of graphics with text on top, is causing issues for people who have eyesight issues. I agree with the point of the light grey text on a dark grey background, especially since I tend to keep the brightness pretty low on my devices (I love extending my battery life). However, I believe that the appropriate use of graphics can really help an application get broader/nearly universal appeal without requiring much localization of text strings.
The other point the article makes is that both Android’s current auto update, and iOS7’s upcoming auto update feature are going to cause even more problems for people who do not want to change their apps. I hadn’t thought about this, since I like to learn new things and therefore (as mentioned above) actually embrace change. Yes, sometimes it is difficult or uncomfortable, but change will happen, so we may want to get use to it.
My wife, on the other hand, doesn’t like change to the programs she uses. And this is the point that the author should have made more strongly…if you are making a change, make it for a reason, not just for looks. Many applications add cosmetic changes without any regard for the impact to the function of an app. If you are going from a mostly test based interface to a completely graphical interface, make sure those who need to use screen readers can still use your app. Or give the user a choice. It is easy to just assume that everyone will like the new version, but if you work on giving both options, you – as the developer – will get to learn more! Yes, it is change for you, and that will help you expand your skills. Try and figure out how to add that new, cool graphical feature in such a way that a text only user can benefit too.
What do you think? Should we all just keep tweaking our apps, or should we figure out how to incorporate new features in such a way that it is useful for both old and new users? When should your new features necessitate a new version of the app, so users can choose between version 2 and version 3 (given the challenges of auto update?).