The first impression determines the future of a product. When a user first visits a website or opens an app, their instant opinion will largely influence future behavior. A logical, clear and pleasant interface means that the product has a chance to show all its advantages. If a user sees an outdated, cluttered, uncomfortable website or app, they may irrevocably leave if a competitor has a more convenient one.

The main competitive advantages of quality UX/UI are increased traffic, conversions, sales, saving money on support and reducing customer churn. To increase your competitiveness and reduce costs in the future, the topic should be broken down in more detail.

What is UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface)?

UX stands for User Experience. It encompasses all human interaction with software. UX includes the overall perception of the product, logical structure, speed of task completion and usability.

UI is User Interface. It consists of visual design and interactive elements such as menus, icons, buttons, color schemes and fonts. In other words, UI design refers to how a product looks and how intuitive it is.

The connection between these areas is inseparable: a well-designed UX is responsible for a user-friendly and efficient product experience, and UI makes interaction enjoyable. Thus, UX/UI is not just a visual shell, but a strategically important success factor.

Why is it important for software customers to consider UX/UI?

Let’s list the main reasons why the future of software depends on the quality of UX/UI:

• Meeting market expectations. Modern users are used to well-designed interfaces. So it’s important to be on par with, or better than, your competitors.
• Accelerating time to market. The right User Experience and Interface helps to avoid long revisions after launch, which speeds up project payback.
• User Loyalty. If a product is user-friendly and pleasant to use, customers come back and recommend it to others. This reduces the cost of attracting new users.
• Reduced development and support costs. UX/UI errors detected at early stages are cheaper to fix than finalizing the finished product. An intuitive interface reduces the support workload.
• Good UX/UI helps achieve business goals faster, e.g., increase conversions and profits, lower user training and support costs, attract investors. Key points: a business should not miss opportunities and give competitors a chance to get the user’s attention because of flaws in structure and interface.

How does UX/UI impact software success, business metrics and investment attractiveness?

The impact of UX/UI on software success cannot be overemphasized. The factors of successful software can be considered to be:

• user satisfaction and audience retention;
• positive brand reputation and organic user growth;
• so-called “word of mouth” marketing, when satisfied users recommend the product to other people;
• flexibility and scalability, when the product is easier to adapt to new market conditions; for this purpose, the interface should have the option to add new features and expand the audience;
• conversion and monetization in digital products work well when the user follows a clear path with simplified navigation and successfully completes targeted actions (registration, subscription, purchase);
• reducing support load and costs is achieved through an intuitive interface where the customer does not encounter problems;
• increased ROI – ROI refers to a quick return on investment in UX/UI through increased profitability and reduced bug fixing costs.

If a business gathers a loyal audience with a long lifecycle, you can plan for higher goals and expect steady growth.

Interesting facts about user experience and interface

1. According to Forester Research every $1 invested in UX brings an average $100 return.
2. 70% of venture capitalists consider UX design a critical factor when evaluating startups.
3. Fintech startup Revolut has attracted billions of dollars in investment, largely due to its user-friendly mobile app with an intuitive interface.
4. Airbnb was able to capture the home rental market by significantly improving its user interface over its competitors.
5. Amazon’s redesign of the “Buy” button resulted in millions of dollars a year in increased sales.

Investment attractiveness of software

First, investors evaluate not only the functionality of a product, but also its usability. If the UX/UI design makes the product in demand and competitive, it increases the chances of receiving investment. Second, companies with well-designed UX/UI are more competitive on the stock exchange because their products have high user ratings and low customer churn. This makes it easier to go public.

How UX/UI affects the perception and usability of software

Below you will find the key qualities to look for when you hire a UX/UI designer and what makes a decent UX/UI design for software. So, what the “face” of the product should be:

• simple and intuitive, i.e. clear controls, minimum clicks to achieve a goal, use without instructions;
• consistent, i.e. consistent in style, fonts, icons, with repeatable patterns and predictable guidelines;
• responsive and fast, meaning instant response, lag-free loading and animation, and ease of use on mobile devices and computers;
• accessible to people with disabilities, which is realized through contrast, voiceover, keyboard navigation, contrasting colors and readable fonts, simple wording without complex terms;
• visual hierarchy, with which important and secondary information is clearly visible, clear structure without overloading, grouping of elements;
• personalization to the user’s needs that engages through interest and behavior-based recommendations, the ability to customize the interface and its modes.

Note examples of successful UX/UI design such as, Google’s minimalism, Apple’s unified style, Amazon’s instant loading speed, Microsoft’s inclusivity, Gmail’s hierarchy, Spotify’s personalization, and many other examples from tech giants.

Case studies: anti-examples of software with failed UX/UI

Poor UX/UI design can lead to low user engagement, increased bounce rates, and even financial losses. Let’s take a look at a few famous cases where UX/UI errors led to negative consequences.

Windows 8 – confusion between interfaces

Microsoft dramatically changed the interface in Windows 8 after eliminating the familiar Start and replacing it with a tiled Metro UI design. This led to confusion among users, especially those who worked on PCs without a touchscreen.

Consequences:

• users had difficulty navigating;
• Windows 8 sales were below expectations;
• Microsoft was forced to bring back the Start button in Windows 8.1 and completely redesign the interface in Windows 10.

Snapchat (2018) – a redesign that disappointed users

Snapchat released a major update in which it changed the navigation: mixing private messages and public content, making the interface confusing.

The consequences:

• millions of users complained about the inconvenience;
• a petition demanding the return of the old design gathered more than 1.2 million signatures;

• The company lost $1.3 billion in market value after Kylie Jenner tweeted, “Has anyone else stopped opening Snapchat? Or is it just me?”

MySpace: chaotic and cluttered UIs

Social network MySpace allowed users to fully customize pages, but the lack of a unified design led to chaos:

• cluttered profiles with flashing banners;
• different styles on each page prevented easy interaction.

Consequences:

• users moved en masse to Facebook, which offered a clean and user-friendly interface;
• MySpace lost its leadership in social networking and lost its audience.

These examples show that mistakes in UX/UI can cost a company money, users and even its future in the market. The success of a product depends not only on features, but also on how user-friendly it is for people.

How to avoid costly UX/UI mistakes?

Investing in UX/UI at the start is saving time and money in the future, that’s what the software design and development folks say. Fixing bugs after launch is much more expensive and in some cases leads to loss of users and losses. So think about these nuances:

• early UX-research and testing (user interviews, A/B tests);
• creating interactive prototypes before development;
• constant tracking of UX/UI metrics (time on task, abandonment, conversions);
• flexible design that can be improved without drastic changes.

So, if you are planning to commission a UX/UI design or fix, don’t delay this step. This strategic approach will allow you to get ahead of the competition, save resources, ensure business growth, attract new users and retain regular ones.