Familiarity OR Surprises

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1 year ago

Things could be familiar or new to us. Depends on situations, we might want something surprising (new) or we want something familiar. Let's discuss some situations where familiarity or surprises would be better, based on one's readings + gedankenexperiment.

Imagine you're designing a software for someone else. If your client haven't use the software yet, he/she won't have any residue in his/her brain. Therefore, you could just design something that fits his/her requirements (and taste). Here, something is surprising, nothing familiar.

However, if he/she already uses an existing software, and now he/she asks for more things to add to the program. Or perhaps, the old program looks old, and he/she would like a new look. Here's the controversy. For things that he/she asks to look new, we would give them something surprising, as they asks for it. However, if the program, says, prints document to customers; these documents rather stay the old look, because of familiarity. You wouldn't want their customers/employees to re-learn how the template looks like, acting as a roadblock to their busy days. Familiarity allows them to know where things are!

Therefore, even if the person asks for a new look, perhaps adds some familiarity in the program. For example, dropdown with these menus still go where they are. Don't change their namings, as the users already get used to these namings and we don't want them to re-learn what things are called when they need things done quick! Buttons that are "there" should be there, clear, visible, and catchy. You could add new stuffs, and that doesn't mean you need to change where old stuffs are.

Just imagine you're using say, Windows 10. Now, while updating for fixing security bugs are okay-ish (if it doesn't interrupt what you're doing now), force-update to Windows 11 (which is not the case, I'm just listing an example) is not okay. 10 to 11 is a large update, and things don't go where they are anymore. Say, the "start" button no longer goes on the bottom-left corner; it's now on the middle, which is just darn difficult to move my mouse there. And bla bla bla. Just imagine you have lots of work to do and just need a familiar machine and they start telling you you should update your computer or we'll force you to update, what do you feel? Does that block you from doing what you are going to do now, and in the future? What if your computers get forced update while you're demonstrating something to your customers, do you lose your customers? That's why we need familiarity; and no-update if customers don't want to, except for security bugs which they could reschedule updates.

As for surprises, these are important too! Mainly in relationships. When things become familiar, instead of seeking inside to recuperate the relationship, people starts looking outside for surprises. And the contrary: if wife/husband gives their other parts surprises once-in-a-while (how often depends on how much surprises, which vary for each person), it keeps them together. There's no need to seek outside for surprises when you get surprises internally.

Similarly, in life we might want some fluctuations on the dead water: that's when surprises comes in. Though, surprises shouldn't be too often; after all, if it comes too often, it's not surprising anymore! Maybe you got exhausted with all those shocks; or perhaps, you got used to surprises that you need larger fluctuations to surprise you now and in the future. Therefore, small dose of surprises does the job, with large dose once in a long while.

Think: does your situation, your customers, your clients, your wife/husband, your friends, your parents, need familiarity or surprises, when you plan something for them. Sometimes, if you're close enough, you could just ask them whether they want surprises or not! Otherwise, you would need really good experiment plus good understanding of people's facial emotions and the messages they carry to guess whether the other parts needs what: with multiple experiments. Though, I recommend you ask, as experiments means you see they get boring, then you rethink and reexperiment, which just exhaust the other part. Plus, guess is always guess, you never know whether their message passes you interpret correctly if the person don't explain (if they realize what emotions they make; as sometimes what they fell doesn't reflect on what body emotions they make).

Your choice.

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