Anyone who’s used Facebook over the last 5 years knows that not much has changed in that time. Facebook is a mega corporation
worth over $350 billion, so you might expect a lot to have changed in three years. Why is Facebook retaining every key element of its design? The answer to this same question explains why every major website—including Google, Twitter and Amazon, despite their large budgets—do not make drastic redesigns.
It is explained by
Weber’s law of just noticeable difference, which states that the slightest change in things won’t result in a noticeable difference; if you’re looking at a bulb, for example, and the light dims or brightens just a bit, you’re unlikely to notice the change—if it brightens significantly, however, you will notice the change. In the same way, if you’re carrying a weight of 100kg, removing 1kg from it is unlikely to make much of a difference in the weight, you’re unlikely to notice it. If you were to remove 10kg from the 100kg weight, however, the difference in weight becomes instantly apparent.
Research shows that we dislike a massive change in existing structures and systems, even if those changes will benefit us, and there is
ample evidence that show protests when major websites make massive changes and redesign.
Simply put, Weber’s law coupled with our natural averseness to change shows that the best way to approach a redesign is subtly; make your redesign slow and subtle, changing a little here and there gradually—in such a way that most people won’t even know you’re doing a redesign—until you’ve completely revamped the redesign. Not only will this ensure your design is well accepted by the majority, but a good portion of your audience would have gotten used to your redesign before it is completed and very few will complain.