We have to leave our comfort zone, otherwise, we won't develop further. At first, no one likes new design because they prefer the old one that they know but what do you think about Youtube? Their whole design, including media player, youtube studio, etc, was dramatically changed compared to previos versions, especially compared to 2011 version, nothing to say about the first versions. Companies invest a lot of money in UX and also I think that there is a reason behind it. A combination of UI and UX attracts people along with the service company provides.
Despite the fact that Freebitco is really a great company, their website looks very old-styled and not a smooth experience for me.
Care to explain that more? Why don't you feel that this is a smooth experience for you?
Youtube is indeed an example where the rebrand pays off, but I think there are more examples that it doesn't always work.
To give an example: I am a member of a Dutch gambling platform, before the rebuild, they had the most active community around in chat and forum posts. After the rebuild, their activity dropped with more than 60%... People like traditions and if it is a complete rebuild and it doesn't work out well, than it can be game over.
As time goes, things change. What was trendy in past, isn't popular now. What do you think, would it be better today to see the same infrastructure that we had in 19th century? I guess, no. Rebranding pays off when it's done smartly. If you do rebranding that's worse compared to current situation, then company will experience the same thing that your dutch gambling platform experienced. If they just improved the aesthetics and didn't care about the user experience, then such a thing would fail.
Is User Experience good? This should be the major question for companies. The combination of UI and UX is something like a nice apartment with all the necessary things in the right place. Nice apartment feels bad when things are messed at home.
I hope I made it clear, wish you good luck!
Again, my love to freebitco <3