🔮 #BlessingSeries Issue 53 - Sometimes It's Not the Product that People Reject. It's the Memory of Their Last Experience.
What my toddler taught me over a bowl of fufu and egusi soup became an unexpected lesson in UX design and Artificial Intelligence.
Earlier last week, my toddler taught me a lesson that I have been thinking about ever since.
Recently, on three occasions, I observed that my toddler didn’t like eating fufu with egusi soup. Every time it appears on the table, I already know I have a negotiation ahead of me. He would start crying and protesting for an alternative soup 😂🤣
So last week, I decided to try something different. I prepared the same egusi soup but added plenty of washed bitter leaves. The soup looked different, smelled different, and even tasted different. I thought to myself, “Maybe this will work.” 🤷♀️
The moment I placed the meal in front of my toddler, his countenance changed. He burst into tears. The crying was not because the soup tasted bad. In fact, my child had not even tasted it yet. The reaction came simply from seeing what looked like the same meal that he had rejected many times before.
After a lot of gentle encouragement, I managed to pop the first little piece of fufu with egusi soup into his mouth.
Out it came immediately. 🤣🤣🤣
I tried the second time again.
Out it came again. 🤣🤣🤣
By the third attempt, something interesting happened.
My child reluctantly swallowed it.
Then accepted another bite.
Then another.
Before I knew it, my toddler was eating happily, asking for more, and completely enjoying the very meal that had caused tears only minutes earlier. 😂😂😂
I could not help but laugh. 😂
Then I started thinking. 🤔
How often do our users behave exactly like my toddler?
For example, someone downloads an app.
The onboarding is confusing.
The pages load slowly.
The navigation feels frustrating.
Nothing works the way they expected.
So they uninstall it and move on.
Months later, the company invests heavily in improving the product. The interface is redesigned. The performance becomes faster. The bugs are fixed. The experience is smoother, cleaner, and far more enjoyable.
Yet many former users would never come back.
Not because the product is still poor, but because their memory tells them it is.
As UX designers, we often celebrate when we launch a redesign.
We proudly announce new features, improved navigation, and better performance. We know how much work went into creating a better experience. What we sometimes forget is that users are not experiencing our product with a blank slate. They arrive carrying memories. Those memories shape expectations long before they interact with the first screen.
Artificial Intelligence faces a very similar challenge today.
Many people formed their opinions about AI years ago. Some remember chatbots that gave inaccurate answers. Others remember systems that produced biased results or generated information they could not trust.
But interestingly, AI has evolved rapidly since then.
Today’s models are significantly more capable, more reliable, and increasingly designed with safety, accessibility, and human oversight in mind. Yet many people still approach AI with hesitation because their first experience left a lasting impression. Their trust did not evolve as quickly as the technology did.
That is why I believe one of the biggest responsibilities we have as designers is not simply improving products.
It is “rebuilding trust.”
Good UX is not only about creating a better interface. It is about helping people feel confident enough to give your product another chance. Sometimes that means better onboarding. Sometimes it means clearer communication. Sometimes it means showing users exactly what has changed instead of expecting them to discover it on their own.
Watching my toddler happily finish a bowl of fufu with egusi soup reminded me that people rarely judge only what is in front of them. More often, they judge it through the lens of what happened before.
The egusi soup had changed, but before my child could discover that, I first had to overcome that fateful day’s experience.
Perhaps that is one of the greatest lessons in UX design.
Designing a better product is important, but designing a better second chance may be even more important.
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