UX debt: the hidden cost of implementing suboptimal design solutions

Elena joined us at UX New Zealand 2019. Find out more here: http://www.uxnewzealand.com/speakers/elena-sanchez/

Full title: UX debt: lessons learnt trying to visualise the hidden cost of implementing suboptimal design solutions

How can a startup building a relatively new product (3 years old) have accumulated roughly the same amount of UX debt as a large corporate with a software product that has been in the market for more than 20 years?

Today’s culture of lean startup and experimentation is great if what you are trying to do is learn and decide what you need to build, but as Nick Finck pointed out, too many organisations are abusing it by shipping MVPs without any intention to learn or iterate on them, just to cut corners.

The result is products with large amounts of UX debt without any plan to repay that debt, just to keep building on top of it until it becomes unmanageable and you need to rebuild the whole platform (a problem lots of teams are facing after only 2-3 years).

This talk will explain how UX debt goes far beyond visual consistency (2 buttons not using the same layout or react component) and includes any suboptimal design solutions, inconsistencies or defects that negatively affect the experience of your users and it’s often caused by business, technical, time or budget constraints. It grows exponentially over time, if unchecked, and it doesn’t only affect your customers but makes your designers and developers’ lives harder, and has a negative impact on the efficiency, morale and quality of their work.

Opening animation by Dave Clark Design. http://www.daveclark.co.nz/