Minimizing change aversion for the Google Drive launch
Venue
CHI'13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, New York, NY, USA (2013), pp. 2351-2354
Publication Year
2013
Authors
BibTeX
Abstract
Change aversion is a natural response, which technology often exacerbates.
Evolutionary changes can be subtle and occur over many generations. But Internet
users must sometimes deal with sudden, significant product changes to applications
they rely on and identify with. Despite the best intentions of designers and
product managers, users often experience anxiety and confusion when faced with a
new interface or changed functionality. While some change aversion is often
inevitable, it can also be managed and minimized with the right steps. This case
study describes how our understanding of change aversion helped minimize negative
effects for the transition of the Google Docs List to Google Drive, a product for
file storage in the cloud. We describe actions that allowed for a launch with no
aversion.
