The value of good UX design

- [Instructor] I often quote this to my clients because it wraps up a key lesson. As long as I've been developing software, it was good enough to get the necessary functionality in place. That's all. Ease of use was secondary. It's still necessary to get the functionality right, but now we have another success factor, making the app fast and intuitive to use. Designing better UX doesn't just have intangible or theoretical benefits. Speeding up users saves labor.

One of my clients is saving tens of millions of dollars a year in labor with their new app that was consciously designed to be better than their old one. Another client cut their labor costs by over 40% for a work staff of hundreds. Design-centric companies routinely out perform companies that don't emphasize design in their operations. Better UX design in business applications is an important component of design oriented thinking in organizations.

In extreme cases, lack of good UX design can lead to catastrophic consequences. Cosmetics retailer Avon lost both the $125 million they spent on a new system plus lost revenue because their sales reps resigned rather than use it. Note the word in the call-out, frustration. We'll be talking at various points about the role of emotion in design. It's something that developers don't think about enough.