People ignore design: I’ll extend this quote to people ignore companies that ignore people. In this article, we will focus on the meaning of this quote in the perspective of a startup environment. We’re in the age of media transparency, ease of information dissemination. Companies don’t operate in a bubble anymore. They’re in the public purview now. How they behave with customers either ends up in a twitter or Facebook war. In fact, I’m sad that you usually get a quicker response on twitter than official email. This is how scared companies are of public response.
People ignore design that ignores people!
UX Quote
Hence the quote – people ignore design that ignores people. Our businesses are for people, consumers – whether it is B2B or B2C. It is amazing to see that design principles from B2C have made into B2B. Ultimately you’re dealing with the same people who want ease of access, convenience and are used to a better standard. Hence startups now have an added pressure to make the product easy and simple. In other words, user centric design is a norm whether you’re a B2B or B2C business.
People Ignore Design that ignores people – Meaning
It sounds straightforward for the meaning right? It’s astonishing to see how many companies continue to ignore this. It is seen as a luxury problem than a necessity. Unfortunately, by the time you start work on it, you’re already on a backfoot with unhappy customers. This is a dangerous position to think that a UX will fix all problems created by taking a customer for granted. If you’re running a startup, you know that the design element is crucial. This is more relevant if your business relies on customer falling in love with your product.
Unfortunately many people think that design is about colourful fonts, images etc. But it all comes down to the basic design principles of simplicity, user experience, ease of use. Ultimately, a user is making use of your product to achieve a goal or purpose. As a designer/startup your duty is to ensure that this user journey is the main part of your design. The most common reason for ignoring users is revenue. You can see this in the form of obtrusive ads, annoying messages to force you to buy more things than you need etc.
When revenue goal overtakes customer service
Design is built on the principle of trust. The moment it erodes, startups or any business for that matter struggles. The most important message to take is to ask this question – what do we compromise the value of user centric design? Unfortunate answers are
- Making more money, or revenue
- Managing cashflow and runway for the startup
- Shareholder expectation management
All these reasons point to the commercial model driving user design strategy. A while ago, we opened a discussion on the 5 Key Facets a user experience must consider, exploring the dimensions and key importance of UX for business needs. As a connected conversation, I wanted to explore this quote with certain key questions that a business can benefit from having answers to before delving into the details of a design.
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