Changes and updates

Initial website designs normally need small tweaks and changes after they go live, but major updates and re-designs may be undertaken periodically.

Changes to websites almost always provoke a backlash from its regular users.^[2] The reason for this is primarily that change is disruptive to the user: for example, the link that the user previously learned was always in the lower left corner is now "missing", and the user must search the page to discover its new location. The user is disoriented, frustrated, slowed down, and needs time to learn and adapt to the new arrangement. On websites with users who spend significant amounts of time each day using, like Facebook or Wikipedia, users normally respond to even moderate changes with noisy protests and empty threats to leave the website.^[2]

Within a few weeks or months, however, most users have adapted to the changes and no longer object to them.^[2] For example, the signature feature of Facebook, a news feed, drew millions of complaints when it first appeared, but users now say that it is an important and highly desirable feature.^[2]

Major websites may try to minimize this with phased rollouts of changes, testing the new design with a small number of randomly selected users, describing the importance of the upcoming changes in advance, and offering users the option of keeping the old design until they have acclimated to the new one. However, the primary cure for complaints is simply to wait.^[2]