How to Waste Money on UX Design
My career as a design agency director has taken me through more than 500 design projects. I have worked with at least 40 different designers. This is what I can tell you: there is nothing designers hate more than working in vain. Funnily enough, there is nothing clients hate more than burning through money.
But how do you end up wasting design resources? Here are the top 9 ways entrepreneurs waste money on UX design:
1. Play It By Ear
Skip formulating a design strategy and inefficiency is guaranteed. Formulating a general design goal is easy, but the value of a design strategy is making constraints explicit and figuring out a way to deal with them.
It amazes me how many entrepreneurs don’t have the patience to discuss the context, hoping to get an estimate and green light the work immediately instead.
Design strategy matters: in my experience, understanding the bigger picture helps formulate plans to reduce design cost by 10% to 40%.
2. Use 1000 Words to Describe an Image
Words fail when people discuss UX concepts. It doesn’t surprise me that this leads to major frustration. Use your sketches and visuals from the very first chat as a basis for discussion. It makes a world of difference because:
· interfaces are too complex for anyone to just deal with them mentally
· tech words are ambiguous and abstract
· put 3 tech words together and no two people will imagine the same thing
· sketching forces people to look at the reality of what they are saying
· sketches turn implicit assumptions into explicit ideas
3. Cut the Wrong Corners
Most founders are looking to save money. They believe that the groundwork for the design is part of the 80% of effort that only delivers 20% of the value. Well, unfortunately for them, this is simply not true.
Design groundwork includes: defining user needs, creating user flows, establishing the information hierarchy, competitor benchmarking, wireframing and so on.
Without the design groundwork, the team is set up for failure. Frustration will ensue because there is no framework to solve issues.
In the end, the design will have to be completely redone before the MVP is ready. This is how costs double.
4. Avoid Design Patterns
Creating a novel and surprising user experience is a risky exercise: it involves a lot of testing and significant monetary investment. Startups that have not yet reached market validation are not in the best position to achieve this.
Most digital products can make use of design patterns, at least in part. When they are used intelligently, it reduces design costs manifold.
5. Skip Prototyping and Avoid Iteration
To get the most out of the UX design process, work your way from very general wireframes to detailed prototypes. First address the user flows, the logic of the application, and all the steps users have to go through. Then create wireframes to get an idea of how it all makes sense. Gradually transform wireframes into more detailed prototypes.
By iterating from the general concept to a more specific approach, you can create a work logic that makes most design problems disappear. It costs less and works better than the alternative: going down a single road and then solving design issues by introducing new steps in the flow which create complicated interactions.
6. Put Your Energy Into Distractors
Catchy visuals distract from deeper issues. The cute app personality is only a mask on a robust logic. Sound and simple mechanics make users happy. The details that are supposed to delight simply do not work without strong UX.
Until you solve all the analytical UX issues, talk about the hard reasoning behind each design decision, not about how the UI looks or feels. Focus on how design decisions are made and how they respond to user needs.
7. Reject Alternatives Because You Know Better
Founders may get fixated on having things done a certain way. Designers can propose alternatives and explain their advantages, but this is bound to fail.
Remember: designers hate working in vain. When you’re in this type of confrontation, it is likely that you’re missing something. Insist on having your way and the results are increased design cost, increased development cost, and a worse user experience.
To solve this conundrum, judge alternatives based on user needs and a cost/benefit analysis, rather than worrying that the product is becoming “something else”. Don’t forget that your vision of what users need is just a hunch.
8. Treat Uncertainty by Complicating the Product
All founders have a deeply hidden worry that their product will fail because the market doesn’t want it. The human mind is apt at worrying, and it tends to avoid confronting reality.
Even in the age of lean startups, many founders tend to add complexity to their applications as the launch date approaches. They hope to cover more potential value, but it dilutes focus and increases costs.
Let the experts simplify the flow and the interactions. Solving any user need is difficult, but adding more features will not make the product better. You don’t truly know what users want, so the least you could do is create a focused product that works well — it will also be easier to pivot.
9. Rely on Juniors to Save Money
Juniors are blissfully cheap to work with. But without guidance from well-seasoned pros, they lack the experience to deliver value. Learning while doing is great for the juniors and expensive for your startup.
An expert designer will offset the higher pay rate by working much faster and smarter: interactions are simpler, less rework is required, and potential pitfalls are spotted early on.
Shortcuts only work when your guide is someone who really knows the path. This wisdom also helps steer the rest of the team towards working smarter. And there’s a bonus: developers will have to work less to code a UI designed by an expert. Intelligent design saves costs downstream.
Take away
It is fun and rewarding to get involved in a UX design project for your product. But it is more complex and tricky than most people realize.
By working with pros, you can concentrate on solving the deeper issues of your app intelligently. Finding creative alternatives that simplify your product will result in a better app that gets built faster with less development cost.
About Creative Navy
We have worked side by side with people who are driven by excellence for a decade. In time, our relentless pursuit of design performance has led us on a journey across demanding projects spanning mobile apps, in-car systems, hardware, and of course web platforms.
Web: www.interface-design.co.uk Contact: hi@interface-design.co.uk
