If It Ain’t Broke, Fix It Anyway

What’s the deal with redoing …everything? 

Some wizard at Rogers Cable decided they didn’t like the way the on-screen program guide came up.  If I had to guess, it appears as if they realised that it was too easy for us to bypass Rogers On Demand which has lucrative “pay” features.  As if they don’t already jam us with the cable bill, but I digress.  So instead of keeping the end user in mind, they devised a new system whereby it is now more complicated, with extra steps, in order to get to the guide.  While it may, in theory, serve their purpose it is exactly the opposite of what the customer wants. I can say that with all confidence because there’s been such a public outcry over how confusing and cumbersome the new method is that Rogers is bringing the old one back.  Consumers will be offered a choice of using the old way or the new way.  I don’t have a crystal ball but I’d be willing to bet they (and we) are going to choose to return to the quicker access method. 

Now Facebook is going through yet another overhaul. I can certainly understand that with millions of people suddenly using the social networking website, Facebook has had to make some upgrades.  But why introduce major changes to the page layout and features every few weeks?  Pick a direction and stick with it, guys. It’s just change for change’s sake. It doesn’t improve anything for anyone except to make us log on in the morning and say, what the hell are they doing NOW and where is everything?  While these tweaks are going on, regular features are temporarily disabled and it’s just a big kerfuffle so some geek in an office can get his kicks and stay busy. 

Things change, they evolve and they hopefully improve.  But all I’m seeing lately are meddling meddlesons fiddling around just because they can, with little or no thought to the person at the other end.  If you’re not making it clearer, easier or more fun, leave it the heck alone!