undefined | Better HN

0 pointsphilistine2y ago0 comments

The subset of people who don't want things to change are running which OS exactly? User interface is just like any other artistic field: it has fashion trends. Look at something that's been around forever and is still developed: BBEdit. Yeah sure the app has not changed a *ton*, but its changed more than you think. Many fads in OS X design (like drawers) had to be implemented and later removed.

Any successful piece of software cannot realistically just stay still. It has to keep evolving with the trends of user interface. The difficult part is doing it well. BBEdit has managed it.

0 comments

sophacles2y ago

>The subset of people who don't want things to change are running which OS exactly?

All of them? Hell I hate it when things change in a way that forces me to give them attention now rather than when I have time. Nothing worse than doing an update and having to rework my flow, scripts, and code just to be productive again. Let me choose when I update my tools, don't force it on me just because your UI team found an even more complicated and torturous way to make simple things ugly and hard - I have my own work to do.

newaccount742y ago

The problem is that you generally can't support yourself by just selling to existing customers; you need to keep selling to new customers.

And the market keeps evolving, so you need to evolve with the market if you want to continue selling.

If you do it slowly enough, and cautiously, then existing customers can adapt.

But if you stop updating your app, it's eventually going to lose its appeal and will be forgotten.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse