Many organisations still treat user experience (UX) as something to improve later. The product is built first. MVP, proof-of-concept. Build now, evaluate later. UX is addressed only after complaints begin. This is a costly mistake. Starting with bad UX creates hidden expenses that accumulate over time, and the data shows that the financial impact is significant. Hopefully by reading this article you will see that the tech debt just isn’t worth it.
Research from the Baymard Institute found that 88 percent of online consumers said they would not return to a website after having a bad experience (https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate). Another Baymard finding showed that nearly 40 percent of users abandon a site that takes more than three seconds to load (https://baymard.com/learn/page-load-speed). These are not minor inconveniences. These are revenue losses.
Poor UX affects conversion, customer satisfaction, support costs, retention, brand reputation and even internal morale. If users cannot easily complete tasks, they leave. When they leave, the business must work harder and spend more money to replace them.
What Bad UX Really Costs
Lost conversions and lost revenue
One of the largest costs of bad UX shows up in abandoned purchases. Baymard reports that 17 percent of users abandon a cart because the checkout is too long or too complicated (https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate). Dovetail Research estimates that improving checkout usability could recover up to 260 billion dollars in lost orders across U.S. and European e-commerce markets (https://dovetail.com/ux/how-to-calculate-lost-revenue-from-poor-ux).
When conversion drops, your customer acquisition cost stays the same, but your earnings per customer fall. The business then has to spend more on marketing just to maintain the same revenue level.
Higher support and development costs
Bad UX creates confusion, and confusion creates support tickets. Those tickets require staff, time and money. They also indicate that the product is not working the way users expect it to work.
Multiple UX studies note that it can cost up to 100 times more to fix a usability issue after development than to fix it during early design and research (https://uxgirl.com/blog/the-cost-of-not-doing-ux). This is because the cost of rework increases later in the lifecycle. Code must be rewritten. Interfaces must be rebuilt. Documentation must change. Internal teams must retrain. These costs compound.
Brightside Studio also highlights how poor UX increases hidden operational costs, including slower internal workflows, misaligned development efforts and increased training time for staff using internal systems (https://www.brightside-studio.de/en/blog/cost-bad-ux).
Damage to brand reputation
Bad UX does not just frustrate users. It erodes trust. Baymard reports that 13 percent of customers tell at least 15 people when they have a bad online experience (https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate). Word spreads quickly.
Another study shows that 32 percent of customers would stop doing business with a brand they otherwise liked after a single bad experience (https://dovetail.com/ux/how-to-calculate-lost-revenue-from-poor-ux).
Reputation is difficult to rebuild once it is damaged.
Why Bringing a UX Designer in Early Saves Money
If bad UX is expensive, good UX is a cost saver. Engaging a UX designer early is one of the smartest financial decisions a company can make.
1. Early design decisions are cheap.
Fixing an issue in a sketch, prototype or wireframe costs very little. Fixing the same issue after engineering is finished can cost dozens or hundreds of times more (https://uxgirl.com/blog/the-cost-of-not-doing-ux). Early involvement prevents expensive rework.
2. Good UX increases conversion and revenue.
Multiple studies have demonstrated the revenue impact of strong UX. Some analyses report that good UX can increase conversion rates by up to 400 percent (https://baymard.com/learn/ux-statistics).
A Forrester Research study (published through UserTesting) found a 415 percent return on investment for UX work, with 7.6 million dollars of net benefit over three years and payback occurring in less than six months (https://www.usertesting.com/blog/cost-of-bad-ux).
This is not speculation. This is measurable business performance.
3. UX designers reduce wasted development.
Without UX guidance, teams often build features that users do not need or do not understand. This leads to expensive rework or complete removal. UX designers use research, testing and user journeys to align features with actual customer needs.
4. UX early helps teams make decisions faster.
User research reduces subjective debates. Instead of arguing over personal preferences, teams look at real user behaviour. One usability testing report noted that companies who adopt continuous research reduce internal design debates by almost half (https://www.usertesting.com/blog/cost-of-bad-ux).
5. Strong UX provides a competitive advantage.
In crowded markets, the better experience wins. Dovetail shows that users consistently choose simpler, clearer and more intuitive products over feature-heavy but confusing ones (https://dovetail.com/ux/how-to-calculate-lost-revenue-from-poor-ux).
What You Should Do Now
- Engage a UX designer at the start of your project.
Do not wait until development is nearly complete. Bring UX in during early scoping, research and concept stages. - Test early and test often.
Simple prototype testing with a small group of users can reveal the majority of issues before you write a single line of code. Even one week of lightweight research can prevent months of rework (https://www.brightside-studio.de/en/blog/cost-bad-ux). - Measure UX with business metrics.
Track page drop off, onboarding completion, checkout friction, support ticket volume and task completion time. These metrics tie UX directly to financial impact. - Prioritise usability before visual polish.
A beautiful interface cannot hide a broken flow. Focus on clarity, speed and task completion. Look at the steps users must take and remove unnecessary friction. - Avoid the temptation to “fix UX later”.
Once poor UX becomes part of your product, fixing it requires new design, new code, new communication and sometimes new marketing. It is much cheaper to get it right the first time.
Final Thoughts
Bad UX is not a minor inconvenience. It is a business liability. It drains revenue, inflates support costs, damages brand trust and slows growth. The financial evidence is clear: organisations that neglect UX pay heavily for it, while those that invest early enjoy higher conversion, stronger customer loyalty and lower long term development costs.
Engaging a UX designer early is a strategic financial decision. It protects your investment, strengthens your product and ensures that the experience you deliver matches the expectations of the customers you serve.
