Digital Muscle Memory, or why we complain every time Facebook Changes

The other night, I got explaining to a friend of mine the concept of Muscle Memory, which in basic terms is the effect of doing something the same way often enough that it becomes a consistent “auto pilot” action.

This action, is not something that is isolated to just physical movement in the offline realm though, It can, and does, effect users when it comes to Technology as well.  In the title I used Facebook as an example of this phenomenon, but the Global technology community actually has seen this happen even more recently with the change by Apple from iOS 6 to iOS 7.

All it takes is for someone to ask a user about their iOS 7 experience  to find comments along the lines of 

“They moved everything, I want it back the way it was”

and

“Why did they have to go and screw everything up? i knew exactly how to use it, then they did this to me!”

The fact is, I have heard these same comments in many different places, from how Google searches, to how Microsoft changed things as they transitioned from Windows 7 to Windows 8, or moved Hotmail to Outlook, merged MSN Messenger into Skype. The list could go on and on.  

It all comes down to one very basic concept, We, the end users, becoming conditioned to things working a specific way, and not wanting to have relearn when things are changes, in many cases (I wont include the Tiled Start Menu vs Task Bar Start Menu detail, because, even I feel that  feel was  a mistake). Usually give it anywhere from two to 6 weeks, our bodies and minds become adjusted to the new way things work and we realize in many ways that it is indeed for the better. That’s just the way Digital Muscle Memory works