Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  The cranky user: Baby duck syndrome (01 Mar 2005) The phenomenon of baby duck syndrome is well known -- it's what happens when users judge new and upcoming systems by comparing them with the first system they learned. This means that users generally prefer systems similar to those they learned on and dislike unfamiliar systems. The name comes from the observation, made in the 1950s, that baby ducks imprint on the first entity they are exposed to for any length of time, treating it as their mother - even if it's not a duck. This syndrome has substantial impact on user interface design. Developers must take into account previous user experiences to make users comfortable if they want these users to move or upgrade to their system. Article URL: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-cranky50.html Read 222 more articles from IBM sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: The Intellectual     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy