How important is the design aspect of an MVP?
Kai Wong Tang
16 replies
Currently me and my partner are having some disagreements as to whether we should be paying for some designs to improve our MVP, we have some rough sketches of what we want and are quite happy with it, but there is always that concern saying if we should make it better to start with? What would your opinions be to the approach to an MVP?
Replies
Alice Smith@alicesmith
A well-designed MVP can attract and retain users better.
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Hey there! I think the design shouldn't be ignored at any stage... I really want to say that at MVP you shouldn't put too much effort and money in it, but:
1) poor design can scare off potential users, especially in the era where everyone got used to extremely easy-to-use software and gets easily frustrated when something doesn't work,
2) good design puts a huge +++ to the reputation, it makes the product and the team to seem more professional on intuitive level.
I probably would invest in design, but tried to make it reusable. If this is an MVP, you could use the designs you invest in now - later on, whether it is a development if this product or another attempt to launch another MVP.
Good luck with your MVP launch!
@natella_nuralieva interesting you raised the last point about multiple launches, I haven’t thought of it from that perspective, thanks for the advice!
Design will always be important. That being said - your job for the MVP is to find the shortest path from idea to customer validation. I wouldn't get stuck on design until you've validated that people want what you're building.
@xjoshwalker fair enough, i guess it will not be too late to implement later down the line too if it is a success. Thanks for the advice!
In my experience the most important thing is the low res wireframes and prototypes, testing them with potential users is vital, the brand and look of the product can come later Kai. We are lauching today by the way, any support would be welcome 😀🚀
I know people say the MVP can be rough and dirty but I think there is a certain degree to which design matters. We're launching on Thursday and in all honesty we delayed our launch by almost a month to get it to a point we thought was good enough.
Consumers these days are so digitally native and used to software that's well done, so I think it makes sense to cater to these shifts in perspectives and expectations.
Sounds like you’re asking the question to do MVP or MLP. This also depends if your targeting B2B or B2C customers in my opinion 😊
Launching soon!
It matters to an extent. It doesn't have to be perfect but you want something that is easy to use. If your design is clunky and hurts the user experience, then it'll be a problem. But you don't need an award winning design.
super important, but the most important part is to keep it simple
I know that feeling really well. Faced with this decision many times. Gone are the days when design wasn't important to a product launch. It used to be thought that the most important thing was that the product worked and that was it. But today, the market is saturated with many products and the competition along with the needs of the users has reached another level. I agree with the comments that award-winning design is not necessary, but competent UX and at least a clean and up-to-date UI are very important. To build your brand, to keep user interested and engaged.
That's actually the reason why we developed our product - resolve the conflict of investing time&money for building design
Ask your users - The ones that pay or use your application.
"if you get to change one thing in the application, What would it be?"
If the answer is related to usability, easy of use, and interactions. Then yes, invest in optimizing the user experience.
If the answer is more focused on new features then you can implement 70-30 Rule.
70% of your resources should focus on Adding new features and 30% on improving and optimizing.
The main idea of MVP is to release the basic functional requirements to solve the problem that is facing your users. Then you have to iterate and release new versions with the guidance of your users to optimize the experience, adding new feature.
MVP is great to valiadte the idea and your business model before start to invest heavily in your product.
Good-Luck!
