Why good UX design is crucial for your startup

The answer to the question of whether UX design is needed at all is obvious to many. Of course, it is a must. In the digital era, this is, perhaps, one of the key elements responsible for the success of any online business. Various studies show that about 88% of users won’t return to the website after they have received negative experience. And 53% of users are ready to leave the website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. The same goes for mobile apps.

So, there are no doubts about the importance of good UX design for most businesses. However, when it comes to startups, things are getting a little complicated. Often, a startup has a clear goal and limited resources. And as a result, a novice entrepreneur will seek ways to save on some activities. This is where the debate arises about whether it is worth investing in quality UX design. Or is it possible for a startup to do without it at all?

We will try to find the answer to this question in our article.

Content Summary

The benefits of proper UX Design for business
The startup issue
Summing Up

The benefits of proper UX Design for business

Before we focus on the importance of a UI / UX design agency for startups, let’s talk about business in general. Below, we will briefly discuss which advantages the right UX design brings for your business. And we will start with:

• Branding: This is the obvious benefit that comes to mind first. Customers keep using the product not only because of the solutions it brings but also because they enjoyed their experience using the product for the first time. So, good UX design is the key to successful branding.
• Optimization of resources spending: Although developing a UX design is an additional expense, it can save you more money at later stages. A product that already has the right UX design will require fewer changes and fixes in the future.
• User satisfaction: The main task of good UX design is to improve the experience of users when they interact with your product. Convenient navigation, easy-to-understand features, and more — this is what any user expects from a site or an application. Without it, the level of satisfaction from using such a product is rapidly falling to zero.

The startup issue

But what about startups? The main problem when working with startups lies in limited resources. Startup owners are often convinced that UX design is something exclusively cosmetic, which will be needed much later. And at the early stages, the usefulness of a product will be enough. After all, the user wants to receive solutions or benefits, primarily. It’s not like that.

The fact is that UX design is about people. When working on the product’s design, the designer keeps in mind a complete image of a potential user. In addition, the UX specialist dedicates a large portion of their time to find out what pain points users have when they work with the product and how to get rid of them. This will reduce the number of unsatisfied users who leave the site or application after 15 seconds of using it.

Today, launching a startup has become very affordable. The market is open to new ideas and suggestions. In view of this, any startup will have a lot of competitors in most cases. Therefore, UX design is of key importance. This is what will allow users to distinguish you from competitors. This is your advantage. This is your uniqueness. After reviewing the solutions of your market rivals, the UX designer will create a unique approach specifically for your startup. This will instantly highlight your product in the eyes of consumers.

Simply put, the importance of UX design for your startup directly depends on how many competitors you have. It will become clearer to you when we look at an example. A mobile app for pizza delivery must have a convenient and understandable UX design. Better yet, it should offer something fresh and unique — let’s say, the opportunity to order pizza made according to the customer’s recipe. This is because there are a lot of competitors in the pizza delivery segment, and it is hard to stand out among others due to similar features of the service. A proper UX design is critical here.

Here’s one more example. You have an app for a diver smartwatch. Its task is to show the level of remaining oxygen, current depth, and pressure. There are practically no competitors in this field on the market since it is too niche-specific and maybe, has low profitability. Do you need a unique, standout UX design here? Of course not. Such a product will more likely have no competitors, which means that the functions that it performs make it unique and useful already. Moreover, being underwater (and this situation can be called extreme), the diver is unlikely to pay attention to how beautiful the design of the application is.

Summing Up

In the end, we would like to state that any startup owner is always forced to sacrifice something when they launch a new business. A situation when there are enough resources is unlikely, so the correct allocation of these resources is crucial. Making a choice, an entrepreneur should build on those realities in which their startup exists. It’s no secret that improper budget optimization is one of the main reasons why startups fail.

Nevertheless, you can sacrifice UX design only if your product is something unique, very niche-specific, and has a few competitors (or none). In all other cases, a much more detailed analysis needs to be done because UX design is too important and carries too many benefits.