One possible reason
for resistance to a new design is that it's not advanced enough - MAYA - most advanced yet acceptable.
Performance vs preference
What an application
needs to be most effective for the business is not identical to what the users
like
The user is not always right.
Do your best to take
their wishes into account as long as that doesn't compromise other success
factors
Reasons the user might be wrong
Learning
the existing system is a sunk cost for them
A
hard-to-use system might be a barrier to entry for new users, which benefits
existing users
They
might focus too much on aesthetics, might prefer a pretty system over an
effective one
They
might have to change the way they do their jobs, and they may not like that
Many
people just have a general discomfort with change
Flexibility / Usability tradeoff
Adding
flexibility generally reduces usability
Finding
the right balance has challenges
Every
business application has a core functionality set required for the business to
operate
A system
that satisfies design principles but doesn't offer this core set is a bad
design
Vocal
users will usually push for more features
If you
suggest a feature to a group of users, somebody will want it, and sometimes
they get downright indignant if the feature isn't included in the developed
application
Simply
adding features to please various people risks bad design
Dramatically
new designs make some old features unnecessary, and those features should be ruthlessly pruned
Every feature has cost
Consider
both costs and benefits for any feature outside the core set
Development,
testing, maintenance time, hidden costs from 80/20 rule, Hick's Law, etc.
get to
"good enough"
No
design is perfect, you'll never please everyone
Summary
Design
principles are guidelines, not rules
Separate
design principles often have tradeoffs, always be cognizant of costs and
benefits
Trimming around the edges rarely yields successful
design; You must push into new
territory to be successful in most cases
The goal
is to get something good, but not something perfect
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