High-interest debt
#83 - Oct.2023
Small frictions in your product's experience aggregate over time. It is a debt that charges very high interest in the future. In a digitalized world where trust is built at every interaction, this is a problem you should care about.
The way your product serves its purpose is a direct reflection of your value proposition. Is how you deliver your promise.
A bad experience is a broken promise.
How customers perceive this value is a combination of their expectations and what you are delivering. A mismatch of these two elements generates frustration. Low engagement. Is a trust-breaker.
Typical sources of bad experiences: high complexity, high cognitive load on customers, solutions that are not accessible, services that are careless about privacy & security, applications that ignore common affordances, and experiences that do not balance function and aesthetics.
Reduce this debt by improving your research & discovery work, avoiding untested assumptions, prioritizing design consistency, and connecting more often to customers. They have a lot to say - and you have a lot to learn from them.
