Never, Ever, Hinder the Use of your Products!

Dec 21st 2012 engineering

One of the worst user experiences I have ever had with software was with the Sony PS3. I kind of liked this product; I found the user interface very nice and well organized… but they were much too aggressive about upgrades! They simply blocked features until the upgrade was done!

A few weeks ago I wanted to watch a VOD movie with my wife. I launched the Playstation Store that asked me to upgrade the OS to the latest version. That’s 45 minutes before being able to access the Playstation again! But wait! Once the new OS was installed, I tried to launch the Playstation Store again… This time, it was the Playstation Application that was not up to date !

In total it took me over 1 hour to do upgrades and guess what, at the end it was just too late to watch the movie!

Generally, frequent upgrades are good for your users, and I am sure there are plenty of bug fixes/improvments in the lastest version. But Sony has just made the wrong choice in blocking features until the upgrade is done. This is just plain frustrating for users! On the contrary, Android and iOS propose an upgrade that you can apply when you want. Best of all, they download in the background.

It may sound evident, but it is very important to ensure your users will always be able able to keep control over their products. You should never force them to do something they do not want to, like Sony did with the PS3.

About the author

Co-founder & former CTO at Algolia

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