We have all been in the situation where we purchase a new smartphone or your company changes its software. Our immediate reaction to new technology when it is thrown at us is that it stinks. That we don’t like it.
It’s true. We have to learn what the new buttons mean. Or we have to find out where we need to go to find something that was so easy before.
The hard part of new technology is adapting to its rhythm. While new technology can adapt to many different people using it in varied ways, it was built with its own logic. It was built emphasizing a certain set of priorities that their designers thought was important.
So the struggle I see people have with new technology is that they get frustrated early and stop trying to learn what the rhythm of the technology is asking of the user. The flow of the design will always be a little different than what we are used to. Some only learn a few buttons and they are satisfied.
To explore new technology you need to be patient with new technology. Fight your first reaction of disgust and give it time. The key to maximizing new technology is to spend more time seeing how you and others are interacting with it. What manual processes don’t fit in the order you use to do them.
Look around the outside of the technology to begin to get the greatest benefit. It can deliver incredible results if we adapt both ourselves and our processes around it.