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I keep having to say this to people—and it’s particularly true when you’re making something that is innovative or challenging in some way—however good your changes, there is a cost to users in having to relearn how to do something and they have to be able to justify paying it. https://twitter.com/cyanhex/status/1329804175736143874
Even things that are materially better and medium-term easier to use require users to do extra work initially and that can be a barrier to them using your product. It is a non-obvious position that they will cheerfully make that effort.
You can use other metaphors they’re used to from other places without too much cost. And no product can just be a replica of another. And if you can make something substantially simpler or more powerful then you should obviously do it...
... but your users don’t care about how innovative you’re being, they don’t care how clever you are, they have no interest in whether you’ve found a ground-breaking new paradigm. They care that your product does a job for them effectively and well.
I want to be clear here - this is not an argument against innovation or creativity. Quite the opposite. It’s an argument for making sure your innovations promise and deliver more value than they cost.
It’s an argument for finding the things that you can innovate in that will *materially change people’s experiences for the better*, that you can differentiate upon, and focusing in on making *them* as great as they can be.
