Start with familiar interface patterns #
The problem your startup solves may be genuinely new. That does not mean its interface needs to be unfamiliar. If users must first work out how to use the product, they are more likely to leave before discovering its value.
Jakob’s Law puts it clearly: people spend most of their time in other products and expect yours to work similarly. Familiar patterns for login, registration, payments, settings and notifications free users to focus on what makes your product different.
If you want an original interaction, have a strong reason and test it with users. An idea that excites the design team may simply be one more thing the user has to learn.
Talk to users early and regularly #
Startups often imagine one type of user and make every decision around that person. In reality, different groups use the same product for different purposes, with different knowledge and devices. You cannot account for everyone, but decisions made without understanding the two or three most important groups are usually guesses.
Research need not require a large budget. Half-hour conversations with a few real or potential users reveal the problem your product solves and how people manage it today. Nielsen Norman Group distinguishes methods that study what people say from those that study what they do. Early on, you need both: interviews reveal intent; usability tests reveal behaviour.
Keep interview notes somewhere the whole team can access. When founders, developers and designers read the same user comments, priority discussions become shorter.
Question every element and simplify #
A good user experience is fluid and efficient. One of the biggest obstacles is the accumulation of elements nobody dares remove. When reviewing a prototype, ask these questions about every image, button and paragraph:
- Would the user lose anything important if we removed this?
- Does this element help users reach their goal, or make it harder?
- Do we need to ask for this information now, or could it wait?
Remove elements that do not earn their place. Start with unnecessary registration fields, lengthy first-use tours and duplicate buttons. A simpler design is easier to understand, develop and maintain. It also leaves room for new features without first dismantling something else.
Keep things consistent with a small system #
In fast-growing products, each new screen arrives with a slightly different button, spacing value or term. Individually these differences seem minor. Together, they make a product feel disjointed and suggest that the same action works differently in different places.
Consistency and standards are one of Nielsen Norman Group’s usability principles: users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations or actions mean the same thing. A startup does not need a comprehensive design system to achieve this. A small library of colours, typography, spacing values and around ten commonly used components is enough to begin.
Mapping this library between design and code prevents developers from making fresh decisions on every screen and lowers the cost of maintaining consistency as the product grows.
Keep iterating, rather than calling the design finished #
UX is rarely right on the first attempt. Even products that have been through concepts, prototypes and tests meet unexpected behaviour after release. Treat the first version as the point where learning begins.
Decide what to measure before launch. Where do users leave registration? What proportion try the main feature in their first week? Which screens generate the most support requests? Product analytics answers these questions; short usability tests reveal why.
A regular rhythm of iteration reduces the need for large, risky redesigns. Small, measurable changes are easier for both the team and users to absorb.
Design with real copy #
Placeholder text such as lorem ipsum is common in prototypes, but words are part of the experience. Button labels, error messages, empty-state explanations and pricing copy can matter more than visuals in helping users understand what to do.
Leaving copy until the end creates two problems. First, the real text may not fit: Turkish sentences are often longer than English examples, causing overflow. Second, tests cannot distinguish whether a user’s difficulty comes from the design or the wording.
Use real copy from the first prototype, even if it is a draft. Establishing the product’s voice, terminology and error-message tone early gives later screens the same language.
When to work with a design team #
Without a designer on the founding team, putting these six tips into practice can be difficult. Signs that outside help may be useful include users failing to grasp the product’s purpose in the first minute, sales calls spent explaining instead of demonstrating, product screens that do not support the investor story, or every new feature making the interface more complicated.
At that point, the work goes beyond improving one screen. Research, restructured flows and a small design system together help a product team move faster. When working with startups, we scope the work to their stage and aim to leave a foundation the team can maintain independently.
A little preparation makes the first conversation more useful:
- A working version of the product or prototype, or screenshots.
- A short note describing the target user and the problem you solve.
- Any available analytics, support requests and user interview notes.
- Your most important business goal for the next few months: a funding round, first paying customers or a new market.
Sources #
- Jakob's Law, Laws of UX; expectations users bring from familiar products
- 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design, Nielsen Norman Group; the consistency and standards principle
- When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods, Nielsen Norman Group; the distinction between studying what people say and what they do
