MVP Dilema, is UX important?

UX is more important than UI.

Make your MVP easy to use, make its UX great!

People often confuse the meaning of 'UX' and 'UI' (easily done when you see roles labelled 'UX/UI' together).

UX - encapsulates everything of how you experience the world (which has many layers it). As a job role its essentially just a process which In simple terms just means: listen to customers early and often to understand how they view and experience the world and design solution(s) with that knowledge (which may not always include a GUI - think Alexa/Siri which is voice commands for example).

(G)UI - is like icing on the cake, once you've baked the cake (with the nutrients, taste and touch), you make it look pretty with decoration.

With that said, I would say bake the cake with more care (UX) - thats what the customer is ultimately buying and must have to sell! The icing (UI) is a nice to have but also worth keeping in mind users can and do (incorrectly) judge the contents of a cake based on the icing. I usually advocate for a balance - make it 'good enough' but don't sweat over pixel perfection in the early stages.

Is like asking if you should put doors and windows on a new house. Yes, is important.

Have you thought about using a UI kit like https://tailwindui.com?

It's a quick and easy way to get a polished look and feel using tried and tested UI patterns.

At a high level, so long as the product can be used and the end user can get enough value that they will pay [and stay] with your existing UI, then continue to get more customers. Optimize for UI and UX as you get feedback from paying users. See where they are getting stuck or confused and fix those areas first.

In most cases you don’t need the best UI/UX to get the first paying customers especially when you tell them openly that you are still building it. If your product solves a complex problem and there are not many competitors, the customer may not even care about it.

Have done the same for my SaaS products like Siteoly and Flezr.

I have websites with barely passable UI but great UX that sell products in the 6-figures. Customer reviews often mention how easy the website is to use compared to competition, which is why they buy from us. Having great UX is key to get your MVP off the ground. It is not cheap and requires time and analysis and multiple iterations - but it's an integral part of any online product.

This is a very vague question because it's hard to draw a strict line between a "good" and "okay" design...

To be honest, I don't think that UI matters as much as finding PMF.
If your product works, I'd suggest that before you dive into improving the UI, dive deep into talking with your target people (as in 1-1, not just throwing money on ads) to validate that what you've done solves them a problem. Then, once you find an audience that LOVES it and is eager to have it, you can start spending time and money into improvements.

So here's my two cents: I use CLI, TUI, GUI, and everything in between on a daily basis :D Products and apps that are easiest to reason about tend to be the most successful. Now, when it comes to a good UI, it definitely catches my eye and makes products seem more legit, but looks can be deceiving and it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best in its category. When evaluating products, I prioritize functionality and ease of use over aesthetic appeal.

Here’s my take on that.
Phil…
https://abitgamey.substack.com/p/help-app-users-see-value-quickly

For products, Requirements (Problem) > Solution > UX > UI

But if you're cold-starting, a great UX/UI can help you attract the first users, which is also a necessary prerequisite for exploring real needs and solutions.

So if your MVP doesn't have any traffic support, having a good UX/UI can help you get better attention.

There are two separate questions here that i think are good to ask.

• will people use a product with a clunky UI
• should I prioritise the UI while building an MVP

The short answer to the first one, of course, is "it depends", and the other people's answers to your question do a great job of answering that part.

I want to answer the second part here. For me, it's often better to not focus on UI beauty on an initial MVP. Sometimes when I build a new idea, after building it, it's really clear that there is value for users, and other times, it's quite clear that the reality is not as good as I imagined it. So I prefer to build things quickly, with less thought on design, so i can actually see for myself if my idea still seems good after the transformation from in my head, to a working website.

Of course, it doesn't have to be super ugly, though. There are tonnes of great ui libraries that will help make something passable quickly. My view is that in a lot of cases you just shouldn't spend too much time on it. Especially if you're experimenting with a genuine new idea.

If your product is not solving the biggest problem that the customers would die paying for, then you should give a little focus on UX/UI. Because, apart from your closed circle, or community people, none cares much about what you're building.

Here the UX/UI saves you, as it at least delivers a story on what you're going to build.

To put it in simple words: The UI shows how confident you are with what you're building.

A Simplistic experience >> Simple experience

The entry barrier to having good UI is quite low because of the components libraries like Chakra, Mantine, etc. Any app can look beautiful with the minimal development effort.

Regarding the UX flows, it should be a bit more complicated because each app could have unique flows. But websites like Mobbin, Pageflows or UXArchive might be handy because most common user flows have already good UX patterns that can be "stolen".

I think it can depend on your product. If it's cookie cutter/easily replicable with many competitors, it is essential for the UI/UX to look and feel smooth. At that point I think branding should be a big focus before launch. On the other hand - a complex product that really serves a niche, I can imagine people who really need it won't care about the UI/UX right away especially if the product serves them well.

I saw many ugly products that generated solid revenue.. so no, you don't need a perfect UI

Fight friction though. Focus on showing the first value as quick as possible and make the onboarding process clean and seamless.

I think that highly depends on how much
time/pain you are saving them. If I got a choice between 2 hours doing something manually every day vs some setup time and a small daily/weekly/monthly maintenance time I would pick your product even if the UI is dumb as hell.

Now, if there already is healthy competition or the time saved is minuscule, I would probably start paying attention if there are better looking products out there.