State of the Evolution

“The only constant is change.”

Everything changes. And when it comes to technology, everything changes rapidly. b2evolution is no exception. Humour me while I’m even temped to say “it’s in its genes to evolve” ;)

On the other side of the equation, we have the user: the human. And one fairly consistant trait among humans is resistance to change..

I am a victim of this myself. I tend to reject everything that breaks my habits. It often takes me months before I get used to something new, I mean: to something different from what I was used to. But once I’m used to it, I finally tend to come around and realize the new thing gives me a better experience overall.

(Btw, I believe that working on lowering your own resistance to change is key to not getting old & grumpy too fast, but that’s another subject I can’t really talk about, especially until I’ve made some significative progress myself ;)

For example, I am currently typing this on one of those Apple “flat keyboards". I hated them at first! I even bought spares of the previous “white keyboard” model while I still could. Because I thought I’d never, ever, want to use those stupid flat keyboards! Now I’m using one and I’m happy about it… It turns out that once you get used to the different feel of the keys, they are actually more relaxing to type on…

Anyways, back to b2evolution: it is always difficult when you release a new version with new features. Some of these features invariably get into the way of some habits you may have developed over the years with the previous version(s). People will inavriably resist to change. Sometimes loudly. Sometimes aggressively. Sometimes constructively too… the last group always save the day ;)

The users who most constructively break down their psychology are the most valuable to improving user experience. They may come up with hints, suggestions or sometimes even complete solutions that will make the transition easier – that “lessen the resistance” if you wanna look the beast into the eyes ;) We (the developers) generally try to react to those suggestions, but I have to admit the timing is not always right. Sometimes it takes months before the “easier” version comes out… :/

That is why I no longer insist that everyone upgrades to newer versions as soon as they are stable. Once stability has been taken care of, usability sometimes takes a little longer to adjust… (bear with us, we too are only humans ;)