Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/mount-hate-b0607bb322eb?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Aaron Weyenberg 
<h4>Our response to change is irrational</h4>
A familiar thing happens when everyone gets used to an app, and then it changes. I picture user’s reactions to that change as a graph of outrage over time. There’s an initial spike in outrage followed by an acceptance to a new normal. The peak outrage is like a mountaintop. Acceptance is a lush valley.
People race up Mount Hate and look with nostalgia back toward the place they were. The peak feels like an enlightened vantage point from which shouts of disapproval can better echo across the countryside. But the air is thin up there.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*aQDiMSTbpcDCzZ8YNDyqFQ.png">Two routes to the Valley of Tranquility.
This week Twitter began rolling out a new <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/product/2017/Giving-you-more-characters-to-express-yourself.html">280 character limit</a>. Jack Dorsey summarizes the collective reaction this way:
<blockquote>
We expected (and ❤️!) all the snark &amp; critique for #280characters. Comes with the job. What matters now is we clearly show why this change is important, and prove to you all it&#8217;s better. Give us some time to learn and confirm (or challenge!) our ideas. <a href="https://t.co/qJrzzIluMw">https://t.co/qJrzzIluMw</a>
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/jack/status/912886007451676672">@jack</a>
</blockquote>
What’s all this this snark he’s talking about? Clever critiques like this one.
<blockquote>
<a href="https://t.co/N4G8tgckQw">https://t.co/N4G8tgckQw</a>
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/brianrbarone/status/912788388150960130">@brianrbarone</a>
</blockquote>
Barone’s edited version would be funnier if it weren’t 39 characters over the 140 limit. But just a half hour later, VICE editor Caitlin Kelly edited away enough to make weight.
<blockquote>
139 characters
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/caitlin__kelly/status/912795950476857344">@caitlin__kelly</a>
</blockquote>
Twitter is awash in disfavor over the relaxation of its character limits. And a lot of that anxiety is focused on <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=trump+280">one user</a>.
<h3>Viewing the mountain vista</h3>
The landscape of apps is dotted with many peaks of hate, and each path up the ascent of objection is well worn because people scamper up in gangs, energized by their outrage. Let’s look at some more.
iOS 11’s new control center gives us an example of how quickly change inspires contempt. Designers in particular hate it.
<blockquote>
I hate the Control Center in iOS 11. Hate the interactions, hate the IA, hate the aesthetics, hate the usability.
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/paulmcaleer/status/912776913168556038">@paulmcaleer</a>
</blockquote>
Remember when Apple switched their system font to Helvetica? Everyone <a href="http://www.creativebloq.com/computer-arts/helvetica-wrong-choice-mac-os-81412755">hated</a> on that. People called it “muddy and confused” and “too obvious.” Jason Santa Maria said “it’s tough to argue that Apple cares about typography in their software.” Tough crowd.
Apple can’t seem to do anything right lately, but let’s not pick on them. Recall Instagram’s redesigned logo? Tim Nudd of Adweek <a href="http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/instagrams-new-logo-travesty-can-we-change-it-back-please-171398/">called it a travesty</a>. Designers called it an abomination. An abomination? Really?
<blockquote>
This is an abomination. <a href="https://t.co/G34MABvQ8e">https://t.co/G34MABvQ8e</a>
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/eli_schiff/status/730401295115292672">@eli_schiff</a>
</blockquote>
Just three months ago everyone <a href="http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/06/twitter-redesign-with-circular-avatars-gets-hate-on-twitter.html">hated</a> Twitter’s new design. There’s even a <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/twitter-debubbler/gefanibciadccmleoclooncifjflapbe?authuser=2">Chrome extension</a> for cross-armed users who refuse to change.
Last year everyone <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/02/03/why-everyone-hates-ubers-new-logo/?utm_term=.6d6521fb285d">hated</a> Uber’s new app icon and logo. “How long will it take Uber to realize that their new app logo is a flop?” wrote Fortune Magazine. Was the previous “U” logo really so brilliant?
AirBnB’s new logo was <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28343130">ridiculed</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2014/jul/18/balls-vagina-both-airbnb-logo-internet-parodies">mocked</a> relentlessly.
Every time Facebook does anything different, waves of scorn wash over the Internet.
<h3>Looking back from the Valley of Tranquility</h3>
The peak of Twitter’s hate mountain is crowded. But not as crowded, I propose, as it would be if Twitter had launched with a 280 character limit to begin with and then chopped it by half.
‘But Twitter is what it is because of the limit’ one is tempted to hypothesize. I’m tempted too, but nobody will ever know that. Whether Twitter would be what it is today if it had a higher limit will remain a thought experiment at best. The real question is this: A few months from now, will you want to go back to 140?
What about the other examples above?
<ul>
<li>After we’ve gotten past the ostensibly inelegant iOS 11 control center to benefit from it’s powerful customization features, how many of us would really trade it back for the old one?</li>
<li>Who’s still hung up on Helvetica as Apple’s system font?</li>
<li>Does anyone still see AirBnB’s logo as a pair of balls or a vagina? Or have they moved on, using the service in even greater numbers?</li>
<li>Is anyone still fussing about Uber’s app icon or are they calling cars like crazy? People are using Uber in the face of far more egregious sins by the company.</li>
<li>Does anyone even remember what exactly changed with Twitter’s design a just three months ago?</li>
</ul>
The gradual arrival to a new tranquility has played out in all of these cases. We’re in the valley of familiarity.
<h3>The rational path</h3>
Most opposition to change I see in objects and apps we use comes from muscle memory. We’re used to things being a certain way, but our comfort and approval have almost nothing to do with how effective that way actually is. Now none of this is to say that all change is good change, but our instinct is to reject the new thing for reasons that don’t have any rational root.
So then, there are two routes to the Valley of Tranquility. The mountain route need only be there if a rational perspective on change is forsaken. Invite a piece of knowing from meditation: Let the negative emotions that change inspires be what they are. But don’t let it manifest as a mountain. Take the rational route. Relax your muscles. Do a little research and find out what inspired the change. Imagine how things will look from the future.
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<a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/mount-hate-b0607bb322eb">Mount Hate</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io">prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Mount Hate

Our response to change is irrational

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