There’s a lot of debate these days about product design and how every business should invest a lot into a well-designed product and an exceptional user experience.
The problem with this argument is that most people who say things like that are either designers themselves, or have something to gain if more people increasingly adopt design solutions. It’s almost like the guy who sells watches telling you to always be time conscious and how a nice watch would look good on your hand or the guy who runs a car dealership talking you out of embracing the whole gig economy concept of renting everything because the more people rent cars, the less they need to buy them. These people will usually have a bias and a subjective opinion in regards to these topics because they directly affect them, and so will designers when they talk about exceptional product experiences.
My goal with this piece is to try and explain in an objective and non-bias way why you need to invest into product design, and why having an exceptional user experience is of paramount importance.
UI/UX
We’re going to break UI/UX into two distinct factions — UI (User interface) and UX (User experience); your User Interface refers to how your product looks like, and how your users perceive your product, while your user experience refers to how your users interact with your product from one page (if it’s a website) to another.
So we attempt to answer two pertinent questions; do you really need to invest in UI (User Interface) design and UX (user experience) design?
Why User Experience
Like we said in the example above, your user experience refers to how users interact with your product.
Is investing in your user experience important? We think so, and here’s a short story to back that up;
So, peradventure you visit a friend of yours who has a kitchen that has two entrances; one from the main house, and the second one from the verandah. The challenge is this; the door knob on the entrance from the main house is so badly mauled (for reasons I am not aware off), that you literally have to turn, twist and perform all kinds of maneuvers just to get that door to open. Trying to open that door will usually take you a couple of minutes (not seconds — minutes). However, the kitchen door from the verandah has a perfectly functioning door knob that opens on the first twist. Chances are, after a while, instead of performing various types of wrist acrobatics just to get the kitchen door from the main house to open, you’d rather just walk into the kitchen through the verandah.
This is exactly what user experience is all about. How do you make interacting with your product simple enough for your users to prevent them from looking for a much better and convenient option from your competition?
An exceptional user experience means that users can get from point A to point B with your solution/product as easily as possible and as simply as possible. The more difficult and challenging it is for users to interact with your product, the more likely they are to flirt with your competition.
I remember many years back, when I wanted to download an mp3 song, there was a website I’d visit to try and download the free version of the song (don’t judge me). The problem was since the site and the songs were free, the owners had a very strong incentive to push ads to monetize the traffic they attracted to their site. They had a very strange way to do this. When I clicked on the song I wanted to download, I would literally get directed to site upon site (without getting my song) till I eventually got fed up and told myself that man shall not only live by bread alone, he shall not also live by song alone. That horrible user experience discouraged me from downloading songs from that site (and from any other site) for a long time.
A horrible or bad user experience will do the same to your users. If your users (or a first time user) has to solve calculus or consult the gods to locate the specific function in your product he/she is looking for, you clearly already have a user experience problem. These users will usually stay around till they can find someone else with a better product experience they can port and jump ship to.
Having an exceptional user experience is a feature worth investing meaningful resources into, and if after reading this you still don’t agree, I would implore you to read this article (https://arstechnica-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-got-a-500-million-lesson-in-the-importance-of-ui-design/?amp=1 )from ars technica detailing how a poorly designed financial software used by a Citibank contractor cost Citibank US$500 million, the highest anyone I know has paid on a lesson in design, and if that still doesn’t convince you, shoot me a message on here so we can organize special deliverance for you.
Why User Interface
Your User Interface as defined earlier is simply the way your product looks. Looks are powerful; the color, font types, font sizes and the likes of your product all play a vital role in determining how users perceive your product to be, and perception plays a large role in people’s willingness to do business with you.
To properly expatiate on that, let’s imagine you’re hungry, and you want to get a good meal, you decide to go to a fast food restaurant not too far from where you live to get a nice meal. After your meal, you’re given a bill of N2,000 ($5.25), you gladly pay and go on your way. However, if you stepped into a local Buka(Mama Put) in your area and after eating the same meal, even if the food at the local Buka tasted better, you were given a bill of N2,000 ($5.25), you would naturally put up a protest, why? Because although the product (food) at the local Buka may have even been better, your perception of the delivery when compared to the fast food restaurant you visited (flat benches vs. soft chairs, heat vs. air conditioning) made you consider the local Buka a cheaper option. The user interface of the local Buka made you rate it as an inferior and cheaper experience when compared to the fast food restaurant, and was pivotal to your refusal to pay the same amount for the two experiences.
The user interface of your product plays a large role in determining how users will perceive and consider your solution to be, and how much they’ll be willing to cough up for it.
If someone brought a wrist watch to you in two packages; one was in a box as large as an iPhone box, and the other a transparent nylon packaging, you would by default assume the watch in the transparent nylon to be of inferior quality to the one in the box, regardless of which was really the high quality one.
User Interface design helps you create a better perception of your product in the sight of your users, allowing them to both trust you, and consider your solution to be as valuable as you want it to be. There are certain poorly designed websites I visit that without contradiction, I’d be reluctant to do any kind of business with them, let alone input my card details, the lack of proper UI design makes them look like scam or fraudulent websites, regardless of how legitimate the owners may really be.
Proper UI design is a key factor you shouldn’t leave out while building a great product.
Conclusion
Building a great product takes a lot of processes to birth a solution that truly meets and satisfies the needs of your users.
Among other things, including engineering excellence that ensures your product doesn’t keep crashing every now and then, investing meaningful resources into UI/UX design is a powerful option product developers should endeavor not to ignore while building and scaling excellent and exceptional product solutions and experiences.
