Summary
Feature improvements to software that has been around for while often results in frustration for the users because of resistance to change. Even if the new experiences are proven to be better, old habits and biases interrupt adoption speed. In this talk, Paula will explore strategies for proving out where legacy software needs improvement and where research can guide and debunk myths about legacy software and legacy users.
Key Insights
-
•
Legacy habit paths form over years and become deeply ingrained through frequent and complex workflows.
-
•
Breaking established habit paths in software can cause cognitive overload and reduce productivity.
-
•
Windows settings navigation evolved through nine different habit paths over 27 years, with some changes improving and others worsening user experience.
-
•
Measuring before-and-after effects on habit paths is crucial to determine if a change is better, worse, or the same for users.
-
•
Multiple methods exist to evaluate habit disruption, including time on task, cognitive load, emotion tracking, and telemetry.
-
•
Telemetry is often missing or insufficient for tracking habit paths, requiring manual analysis or enhanced tooling.
-
•
Smaller user bases, such as enterprise teams with fewer than 20 users, have an advantage in deeply understanding and managing habit formation.
-
•
Different user populations may face varying levels of pain when habit paths change, making user segmentation critical in design decisions.
-
•
Consistency must be balanced between respecting legacy habits and aligning with newer interaction patterns from other platforms.
-
•
There is an opportunity for the industry to collaboratively track common habit paths to unify user experiences across products.
Notable Quotes
"People form habits on software that become efficient, so they naturally resist changes that force new habits."
"Breaking a habit path can cause users to repeatedly retry workflows, leading to frustration and cognitive overload."
"From 1995 to 2012, Windows users had a consistent start button habit path to reach settings; Windows 8 broke that 15-year habit."
"If we don’t respect legacy habits, we risk interrupting workflows and causing users to have a bad day."
"Measuring changes before and after is key because you can’t know the impact without a baseline."
"Collecting habit path data in every study over time builds a data set that informs product decisions."
"In the small enterprise user base scenario, you can get down and dirty to know exactly how people use the software and how habit changes will affect them."
"Consistency with legacy habits versus new platforms depends on knowing your audience and the likelihood of pain from breaking habits."
"Breaking habits for new users, such as Mac users switching to Windows, requires mapping mental models carefully to reduce pain."
"Habit changes sometimes must happen, but measuring and designing to respect them avoids mortifying changes."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Using systems tools is only about 5% of my day-to-day work; I handpick them to meaningfully engage stakeholders."
Boon Yew ChewMaking Sense of Systems—and Using Systems to Make Sense of the Enterprise
June 6, 2023
"Design system decision records prevent knowledge being stuck in one person’s head."
Dan DonaldDesign Systems as a Vehicle for Systemic Change
June 1, 2023
"Corporate leaders don’t know how to integrate design leaders beyond the design org."
Fatimah RichmondThe Future of ReOps as a Strategic Function: A Roadmap for Getting There
March 25, 2024
"To me, sweating the pixel means paying attention to the details of interactions and keeping our eye on quality as designers."
Joseph MeersmanSweating the Pixel: Scaling Quality through Critique
June 10, 2021
"Inside every challenge is an opportunity, and letting your partners challenge your assumptions is necessary."
Melinda BelcherBridging the Gap: Making the Most of the Differences Between Agency and Enterprise
January 8, 2024
"Designers are theorists whether they realize it or not — they create solutions that have intended and unintended consequences."
Uday Gajendar Adam RichardsonFrom AI to Zeitgeist: Theory as the design antidote to AI hype
March 27, 2025
"The coalition of the willing has organically developed into a community for change."
Laura Smith Tom GaylerEmbedding Service Design and Agile Practice within UK Planning Teams to Create Services that Last
December 3, 2024
"Propose new IC roles like a design problem: identify the need, gather research, and try it as an experiment with retrospectives."
Catt Small Micah Bennett Brian Carr Jessica HarlleeWhat's Next for ICs: Exploring Staff and Principal Designer Roles
February 22, 2024
"With LLMs, the product itself is no longer a dependent variable; experiences diverge per user."
Katie JohnsonDisrupting generative AI products with just-in-time consumer insights
June 4, 2024
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What are the limitations of current AI design tools for practical iterative product design?
How can AI enable product managers and designers to participate more effectively in research and prototyping?
What role does visualizing funding distributions (like 'sausage' diagrams) play in improving portfolio management?