Monday, February 25, 2013

Not New, Not Improved


So there's this billboard I passed over the course of the last few days taking the Brown Eyed Girl to work.

It's for Shiner Bock, and it says: NOT New, NOT Improved.

And I loved it. If I drank beer, I might have switched. I never understood the philosophy of fixing something that isn't broken or improving something that tastes or works just fine. I get why they do it, but it's still bothersome.

The first thing I remember is the cereal, Special K. I used to eat it many years ago. And then they changed it. And I stopped eating it. Same with Grape Nuts. :(

More recently, a large organization to which I belong revamped their website. First, it was all back-end stuff, it looked the same mostly, though they'd added features. Now, I've been on PCs and the Internet a long time and I'm fairly savvy, but I hate hate hated the changes they made. The site was no longer user friendly. I could never find the same file or the same section twice. And if I did, it was never by following the same path. Ugh. Very frustrating. And then they decided to change the color scheme, the look and feel of the site. In general, I'm not opposed to the colors they chose, BUT this organization represents something and in my small insignificant opinion, the new color scheme does not represent that thing quite as well anymore. I'm not the only one. When the color changes were implemented, there was a lot of grumbling. And maybe it's more about the change rather than the changes themselves, because a lot of people resist change. Me included. But when something seems less friendly, less easy to use, or doesn't taste as good as it used to, there's something to be said for leaving well enough alone.

One last example is iTunes. Most people either love it or hate it. I'm mostly in the love it camp. The last upgrade brought significant changes to the user interface. A lot of folks were upset over that. And I'm not really sure what the purpose was. As of this post, I have not upgraded, although I'm sure there will be a point at which I have to otherwise things may stop working as well or altogether.

Is there a product that you wish had not been subjected to improvement??

NASCAR update: Danica Patrick started 1st, placed 8th. Not bad at all, considering there are 43 drivers.

9 comments:

Chill N said...

>>Indeed there is. I had bought cars from a particular manufacturer since 1979. During that time, models changed but not ever year. Most of the changes were good (greater safety, better mileage, etc.) Then about three years ago they did a major redesign of the vehicle I had been driving and was ready to replace. Nothing about it reflected the quality and design sense I had come to expect. I went to a different manufacturer :-)

Nancy

Regina Richards said...

A particular brand of shoe I used to buy because they built in a quality insole that was heaven to walk on changed and started using cheap insoles. They lost me as a customer.

mtnchild said...

Oh yes, I have a problem ... and I will name names - Faded Glory use to have the best jeans ever ... but they changed from "real" denim to this cheap fake crap ... I don't buy their jeans anymore! I now buy mens' Rustler jeans from my local Bi-Mart store for only $12. The Faded Glory use to be $17. for the good ones and now they cost more and have a lot less quality. That's my gripe!

Unknown said...

Not so much an 'improvement,' but I hate the fact that I'll find a soap or a perfume I like, and the manufacturer will discontinue it right after I decide to use it exclusively. Ugh!

Jen FitzGerald said...

Thanks for sharing, ladies.

Char Newcomb said...

I really dislike the 'upgraded' iTunes. I get lost trying to figure out how to navigate to update apps. GRRRR.

I'm usually okay with change. It's a constant where I work

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