Recently I wrote about upgrading applications and among others about client applications. I gave an example of Google Talk as the applications with upgrades well-made. It’s the path of the light.
On the contrary the path of the dark was chosen by guys from Adobe Reader. When I run my version of the Reader (7.0) it keeps bugging me to make upgrade. OK, I understand that some people just don’t want their software to be changed without their acceptance (clicking on “I agree” button). Unfortunately I agreed. Once I’ve chosen version I wanted to have after the upgrade a download started (BTW: Why it takes 30MB to make some minor changes?). Then I went back to reading a pdf file I had been trying to read before Reader interrupted me (and forgot about whole upgrade thing). Accidentally I remembered to check the upgrade process so I was asked to proceed with installation. After clicking “OK” button my important and urgent pdf file was closed altogether with the Reader. Hey, it’s the Upgrade – do not disturb. Then I was asked to close my web browsers (I surrendered here in my first attempt), and then to restart my machine to finish the upgrade (I tried once more because I wanted to finish description, but that was enough). Take your minor upgrade back home and keep it away from me. I don’t want it. And stop bugging me with the update information.
I invested my time and got nothing but some frustration. Adobe Reader team earned my reluctance to ever upgrade their product. Not having automatic upgrade procedure now, it will be hard to encourage me to upgrade.
Conclusions are:
• Think how to organize the upgrade process. It can cause quite different attitude than planned.
• Think when and in what kind of situations your users will initiate the upgrade. Will it be convenient for them to do some operations (e.g. close down the application, restart the machine)?
• Halfway can be worse than nothing. In this case nothing would have happen if Adobe Reader hasn’t asked me to upgrade. I didn’t really need that upgrade, but now I won’t try it any more.
A couple of thing I should add in previous post. Upgrades are not only for new features – even more important are bug-fixes. In this situation encouraging your users to upgrade the application is helping yourself (less support work, better opinion about software). From perspective of support team it’s also important to have as few different versions of applications on market as possible (easier to manage the product, less support work). You just don’t want your customers to use your old prehistoric versions.
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