No one wants to be using the same app for 10 years. Or the same UI guidelines for 10 years. So naturally, there's always going to be some direction that people tend to flock towards.
I don't think it's always primarily for the better, although that is usually the goal. It's better and different. I'm sure in the vast open space of design, there are quite a lot of different equally good directions. Most of them just require people growing used to them.
That's why it seems we've made full circle in design. Simple flat colors, sharp lines -> fancy transparent effects -> complex -> back to minimalistic yet functional.
I would say that designers and early adopters like change, people only like improvements. My mom is still using her 10-year-old XP machine and would hate it if it did change just for the sake of change. My Mac running TextMate also looks pretty much the same as my iBook did in 2005. Or look at the public reaction to Windows 7 vs Windows 8, or the way Apple keeps basic designs the same (only geeks can tell an iPad 1 from an iPad 4 on the subway). Apple's only products that are still changed for the sake of change are cheap MP3 players that people buy on a whim.
Interesting, this might be where one of the major issues come from. "We" like change, I suspect more casual users do not.
I'm trying to think of a good example -- I probably catch a plane every 18 months or so, and I'm glad that after a few attempts, I feel I've now masted the process of getting through my local airport. At this point, I'd be annoyed if they made any changes to the process, throwing me back into a position of knowing nothing. If in the long term it made things better I would cope, if it was just a change which might end up going back in another 10 years, I'd get really annoyed.
People like (eventual) change.
No one wants to be using the same app for 10 years. Or the same UI guidelines for 10 years. So naturally, there's always going to be some direction that people tend to flock towards.
I don't think it's always primarily for the better, although that is usually the goal. It's better and different. I'm sure in the vast open space of design, there are quite a lot of different equally good directions. Most of them just require people growing used to them.
That's why it seems we've made full circle in design. Simple flat colors, sharp lines -> fancy transparent effects -> complex -> back to minimalistic yet functional.