Designing for the customer experience to maximize ROI

Great design doesn’t just look good. It should help drive up your bottom line, too.

Twenty years ago, before we even used the term “content design,” I took a job building and managing a team of designers at a Fortune 1000 software company. During the interview, I asked my future boss if I would have any responsibility for profit and loss. He smirked. “Well, loss,” he said. Whoa, I thought. That sounds like a challenge.

My team worked closely with interactive and visual designers to build a software product that now has revenue in the billions and fantastic profit margins. Some loss that is. Challenge, met.

While I understand that hiring designers goes on the expense side of the ledger, it only takes a little bit of a mindset shift to appreciate how design can improve your bottom line. Here are five ways that great design–visual, experience, and content–pays for itself many times over.

Increasing sales
According to Forrester, a well-designed UI can boost a website’s conversion rate by up to 200% or more. It makes sense; a product that is easier to use and visually appealing is going to keep customers engaged and coming back for more.

Content designers weave a thread among all design aspects to tell a compelling story from the first interaction to conversion. We are particularly good at spotting patterns and pain points that adversely affect users. Got a place where customers continually drop out of your product or checkout experience? Design can fix that. Need a landing page optimized for sales and mobile traffic? Design can do that.

Reducing costs
Hiring people may be an upfront expense, but designers can actually help cut your costs. I’ve seen this time and time again. We designers are masters of scrappy, iterative testing and product development. Whether we’re creating a minimal viable test (MVT) or rapidly prototyping with toothpicks and toothpaste to put something in front of customers, we’re good at getting directional customer feedback so you don’t build a billion-dollar product no one wants to use.

The earlier you can get us involved, the better. Good design can help make sure a product is built right the first time, avoiding rework, bugs, and extra development costs. Plus, designers create reusable components and design systems that will streamline your development process.

Building brand loyalty
Great design keeps customers coming back. We all have our favorite products that we can’t live without because of their design. That’s why Apple has sold 2.3 billion iPhones. We have multiple Amazon packages sitting on our doorsteps every day because stuff is so easy to order. When customers think positively of your CX, they’re excited to keep using it and become net promoters of your product or service. They’re also more likely to pay a premium for products in a competitive marketplace.

Fostering innovation
Every company needs to innovate to survive and thrive. Designers are among the most innovative people I know. Along with your software engineers, we can be the engine of innovation, introducing new ideas, functionality, and aesthetics that keep you moving forward. Whether it’s using augmented reality (AR), leaning into artificial intelligence (AI), adapting your 50,000-screen legacy software product into a mobile app, or just creating a great new UI for your website, designers can help you stand out in a crowded marketplace. We’re also devoted to our customers, and customer-driven innovation is one way to help ensure you’re building the right products for your market.

Measuring success
Best of all, much of what designers do can be tracked and measured to see if it moves the needle. We can track user engagement, monitor conversion rates, and get customer feedback before and after design improvements. We can do A/B testing to find out which options customers prefer. We like to test early and often, validate assumptions, and ensure we have data to move forward before you incur big resource expenditures.

Good design is worth it just to create a beautiful experience that your customers can easily navigate and love. But we design for the bean counters, too. Tracking performance can tell you where to invest more–or less. Designers are just as data-driven as everyone else in your business. We want an ROI on everything we do–and we’ll generate ROI for you. So the next time you ask yourself how important visual, experience, and content design are to moving the needle, remember the answer is a resounding data-backed yes.