Change is good, donkey
Never get too comfortable.
I was reminded of this with the Google redesign(s) in 2011. Even though they weren’t a total shock (it was about time), they still made me entirely uncomfortable.
This is, in part, because Google is as central to getting around today as the U.S. Interstate Highway System once was. And when a change is made, it impacts, in a crucial way, the way we navigate.
Back then, in 1926 specifically, Bureau of Public Roads employee, Edwin W. James, came up with what we today know as the interstate numbering system. Prior to that, people relied on a color coding system to know where they were, and where they were going. Telephone poles lined highways and color bands ringed those poles, corresponding to individual trails across the country. As trails expanded, telephone poles became painted from the ground up, 15 feet high, so trying to distinguish one color from the next became a dangerous and confusing distraction.
E.W. James changed that. He decided all north/south highways would be numbered with odd numbers; all east/west numbers would have even numbers; and numbers would increase as you go east and north. The new system had the advantage of not only being expandable (numbers are infinite; poles are not) but it also allowed a motorist to figure out where he was at any given time based on an intersection.
James gave navigation a shape, just like Google gave navigation a shape. When the shape changed—both in 1926 and 2011—people had to adjust. Change is good; it just takes time to adjust to it. Never get too comfortable. Good change is always around the corner.
