user experience

I like change.

Actually – I love it. I get bored when nothing changes.

It’s partly why I do what I do. I’ve been coding for years, as I can be in control of what gets done – and how it gets done. More recently, I’ve been managing a team of developers, giving help and direction with what needs to be done.

I enjoy making changes. I feel immense satisfaction from getting things done (it’s also the tagline on my homepage).

I dislike the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” – as it’s sometimes used as blanket opposition to any change at all. I understand that other people don’t always like change. And there’s a line of thinking that if nobody asks for a change, nobody would want it.

Sometimes, you’ve got to take the lead and deliver new and exciting things without waiting for people to ask. It’s not great if a change is unpopular – but sometimes it’s good to take risks.

The best changes are when you get positive feedback. There’s a saying that no news is good news, and that no feedback probably means that people don’t hate your product. Or that nobody’s using it…

But when someone goes out of their way to say they really like a change – it makes all the difference. It doesn’t have to be a big change: I’ve seen incredibly happy users from some of the smallest changes imaginable. The devil’s in the detail. Definitely do sweat the small stuff.