Improving Legacy Software: How Much Better Does it Have to Be?
Summary
Feature improvements to software that has been around for while often results in frustration for the users because of resistance to change. Even if the new experiences are proven to be better, old habits and biases interrupt adoption speed. In this talk, Paula will explore strategies for proving out where legacy software needs improvement and where research can guide and debunk myths about legacy software and legacy users.
Key Insights
-
•
Legacy habit paths form over years and become deeply ingrained through frequent and complex workflows.
-
•
Breaking established habit paths in software can cause cognitive overload and reduce productivity.
-
•
Windows settings navigation evolved through nine different habit paths over 27 years, with some changes improving and others worsening user experience.
-
•
Measuring before-and-after effects on habit paths is crucial to determine if a change is better, worse, or the same for users.
-
•
Multiple methods exist to evaluate habit disruption, including time on task, cognitive load, emotion tracking, and telemetry.
-
•
Telemetry is often missing or insufficient for tracking habit paths, requiring manual analysis or enhanced tooling.
-
•
Smaller user bases, such as enterprise teams with fewer than 20 users, have an advantage in deeply understanding and managing habit formation.
-
•
Different user populations may face varying levels of pain when habit paths change, making user segmentation critical in design decisions.
-
•
Consistency must be balanced between respecting legacy habits and aligning with newer interaction patterns from other platforms.
-
•
There is an opportunity for the industry to collaboratively track common habit paths to unify user experiences across products.
Notable Quotes
"People form habits on software that become efficient, so they naturally resist changes that force new habits."
"Breaking a habit path can cause users to repeatedly retry workflows, leading to frustration and cognitive overload."
"From 1995 to 2012, Windows users had a consistent start button habit path to reach settings; Windows 8 broke that 15-year habit."
"If we don’t respect legacy habits, we risk interrupting workflows and causing users to have a bad day."
"Measuring changes before and after is key because you can’t know the impact without a baseline."
"Collecting habit path data in every study over time builds a data set that informs product decisions."
"In the small enterprise user base scenario, you can get down and dirty to know exactly how people use the software and how habit changes will affect them."
"Consistency with legacy habits versus new platforms depends on knowing your audience and the likelihood of pain from breaking habits."
"Breaking habits for new users, such as Mac users switching to Windows, requires mapping mental models carefully to reduce pain."
"Habit changes sometimes must happen, but measuring and designing to respect them avoids mortifying changes."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Flexible and staggered schedules help people not get burned out."
Lavy Kumar Kat Temple Shan Sebastian Tara Jensen Jenn ChouFuture of Work
June 9, 2021
"Our user base is really fun and complex, with different preferences that require nuanced automation approaches."
Andreas Huebner Amy Takata Craig BrookesWhat Is It Like To Be Part of The UX Team at Compass?
March 11, 2021
"When people answer in a similar way, they find clusters that can be used to group users."
Ricardo MartinsUnlocking the power of advanced quantitative methods
March 12, 2025
"We changed the culture by changing the language, introducing common terms like hypotheses and experiments."
Monty HammontreeThe Future of UX Research
December 3, 2020
"It’s basically impossible for the design team to work without the design ops team."
Benjamin RealShowing the Value of DesignOps by Not Having a DesignOps Team
October 21, 2020
"Culture often makes the biggest difference in how research ops works across industries."
Kate TowseyAsk Me Anything (AMA) with Kate Towsey
April 2, 2025
"Trust is built by showing you’re there to help make them succeed, not just push your agenda."
Steve Portigal Chris Chapo Kelly Goto Christian RohrerDiscussion
May 13, 2015
"Accessible foundations are built by involving voices of people with disabilities from ideation to prototyping to launch."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
March 28, 2023
"Including people with disabilities in prototype reviews can be different based on the assistive technology they use and their needs."
Sam ProulxPrototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You
October 1, 2021
