The Importance Of UI: Overhyped And Oversaturated?
This weird question emerged when I had my personal media file damaged and when I desperately tried to find a solution to restore it and have my data back. It’s no easy thing to do for a lame duck such as myself, given that I had to search the web through and ask for an advice at the forums of geek video professionals and figure out whether their advice work for my particular case.
At the end, I was advised the service that actually worked for me, and I have even been able to restore my video without any additional help, merely following very simple steps on their website (btw, thanks, Restore.Media, for saving my day!).
Anyways, those of you who check out the link above, might notice that this service provider has very simple UI — no glitter, no ads, no distractions, no make-up whatsoever. And at the same time they performed stellar service of recovering my corrupted video file — they actually provided something that no one else could, and made it very close to the point, without bawling at me with sparkling marketing materials, eye-catching content and all that is assumed to be critical for any online service.
Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent.
Joe Sparano
Having read the feedbacks of their customers, I found out that I was not the only one who was surprised by this lack of marketing efforts: most of their customers noted this fact as well and, unexpectedly, praised their easy-to-navigate-through design, where nothing distracts a visitor from the actual service.
That simple UI hasn’t spoiled my experience as a customer either — quite on the contrary, I have been relieved that the steps to restore my video were so easy.
So I gave all this a thought.
Maybe these guys are right and it is worth focusing on the actual service rather than on the marketing hassle?
Now don’t get me wrong: I have always been an ambassador of well-polished webpages with lots of visual information stored in the trendiest way to catch the visitor’s attention. Smart blogs, beautiful how-to videos, appealing images and pleasant-looking fonts — all that makes me happy when I visit a website. This is actually the way I’ve created my own website (no link, sorry, top secret).
But let us be frank — what is the real reason of putting all the glitter on our front pages? To attract visitors and make them think we are better than our competitors! And that we are worth trying our services.
So why is that we have to persuade our potential customers to do so? Is it because we are in the “red ocean” area and fight furiously for every customer impression? Well, that’s a bad sign, then, because when we enter smooths waters of a blue ocean, our conversions increase without any excessive efforts on UI improvements.
And mind you, maintaining a good website with trendy UI and appealing content is no easy thing to do. And it definitely isn’t cheap. You’ve got to maintain an army of website developers, designers, content creators, marketing managers to supervise all this madness. Of course, sometimes it’s only UI designer, front-end developer and marketing content manager, but it still comes a little pricey. I know what you think — it’s still worth the effort, eh? It pays back in a long-term run.
And it surely does — under the condition that you have some great, high-quality solution for your customers and not just throw on a glittery camouflage over some lame service.
Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.
Jeffrey Zeldman
The thing is, this UI thing is so overhyped, everyone is so willing to impress their visitors with visual effects that sometimes they forget about the actual service they promote. Websites are overloaded with content (yeah, good for SEO, I know), both text and visual information, they are beautiful, impressive… and sometimes play the role of a folding-screen for a very mediocre service.
Anyways, let us be objective:
- If you have both a stellar service and an awesome website, you are good.
- If you have a stellar service and a moderate website, and you still manage to make your customers happy, you might have a point.
- If your service is lame and you try to apply some makeup to it, you are in a trouble, and your customers will soon realize you have an ugly face under all the cosmetics.
- Finally, if both a service and a website are ugly, then you definitely should change something. But by all means, start with a service.
So can you keep a balance between being too pushy and too moderate?
Should you stun your visitors with the first impression, or should you lead them straight to the actual service you provide — without any preamble?
Balance is the key. Try not to bomb your customers with inbound marketing things, but keep your website UI clean and simple, easy to use for the visitors at the same time.
Btw, I have definitely not been the only one who gave this UI thing a thought. Here are the articles from Sophie Paxton , “Your UI isn’t a Disney Movie” and Tony Aubé “No UI is the new UI” who get a new angle on the topic.
Rolling back to the topic — clean UI wins the game. So make sure your customers:
1. Can find you
2. Are always welcome
3. Can make their way to the actual purchase flawlessly
Whichever way you choose — focus on the UI, focus on the service or split attention between the two — make sure it corresponds with your vision and the ocean you’re swimming in.
And to give a hand to those of you who choose to continue with their UI efforts, here is some awesome read by Erik D. Kennedy:
Choose what is best for your business — and keep the balance.
Good luck!
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