TL;DR
Good UX is more than aesthetics — it drives trust, conversions, and customer loyalty. Backed by real statistics and case studies, this article shows how design impacts everything from first impressions to ROI, mobile performance, and user retention, while proving why investing in UX research and testing is essential for business growth.
Part of the job of a UX professional is to prove the business value of user experience to executives. That is not to say that executives deny the importance of UX: most of them understand it, but at the same time, they need metrics to support it. UserZoom survey has shown that 81% of executives recognize the value of UX, but only 59% of them claim that they can effectively measure it.
The evolving UX landscape, shaped by technological advancements and changing user expectations, makes it even more important to measure and demonstrate the business value of UX.
There are no direct statistics that would show how much resources you should invest in UX to see an increase in revenue. However, there is some other data that explains how good or bad user experience can impact the product — from user engagement to conversions.
Eleken is a pragmatic design agency. This means that we aim to make our design more than just good-looking. We want it to work for business goals, and make users fall in love with the product. Real-world data is what proves that design has an impact, and not just an aesthetic one. Here we have a list of recent key UX statistics that show the difference that design makes.
The stats are important to prove a statement: that’s why we start with arguments.
Design is what creates the first impression
- First impressions are crucial, and they are largely shaped by your website's design. On the list of the most useful website features, the leading ones are related to design. 94% of people say that easy navigation is the most important, while 83% believe that a beautiful/updated appearance on a website is also a must.
A visually appealing website plays a key role in attracting potential customers, as it helps establish trust and credibility from the very beginning.
Navigation is what UX designers do, and beautiful appearance is the job of UI designers. Users prefer websites that are both easy to navigate and visually appealing. So, if you want to impress people at the first glance, this is not possible without good design, which can directly influence the decision-making of potential customers.
UX is worth investing in
- On average, every dollar invested in UX brings 100 dollars in return, as stated in the research by Forrester (2016). Even if the numbers have changed since then, the ROI of UX is still very impressive. Allocating a dedicated UX development budget is essential to maximize ROI and ensure your business stays competitive.
- The same research states that good UI can increase conversion rates by up to 200%, and good UX can double this — up to 400%. Conversion rate is one of the most straightforward metrics, so you can approximate the revenue increase that investments in UI/UX design and conversion rate optimization can generate.
We are lucky to witness firsthand the positive impact that UX improvements bring to businesses. Many of our clients share measurable outcomes from their projects, demonstrating strong UX results. For instance, here’s the success we achieved with the app for green energy planning, all thanks to our UI/UX design expertise.
“The user experience was significantly improved, resulting in higher user satisfaction and engagement metrics. Users reported a smoother and more intuitive interface, leading to increased task completion rates and reduced user errors.” David Fischer, director of Greenventory
Design (doesn’t) strongly influence buying decisions
- If you ever search for UX design statistics, you would surely find data like 2021 Gartner research found that 58% of customers claim that most digital experiences don’t have an influence on their buying decisions. That seems to go against all that we would expect, right?
What happens is that in 2021 people already got tired of constant attempts of digital products to “provide a unique experience”. That experience is probably not that unique, and what is really important now is to make things work well. Evolving user expectations mean that users now anticipate seamless, intuitive, and functional experiences from digital products. When performing their everyday tasks people might not need “unique experiences”.
The problem appears when things don’t work well. Poor user experience and bad UX can lead to negative outcomes such as high bounce rates, decreased loyalty, and lost revenue. User frustration often results from unmet expectations and poor UX, further impacting user satisfaction and retention.
Good design can go unnoticed, but won't
- 32% of people would stop interacting with the brand after one bad experience, as stated in a 2018 research by PWC. This can refer to other things apart from design, such as bad customer support or offensive advertisement. Yet, the design carries a great chunk of responsibility for customer experience, especially in digital products. Poor UX can significantly harm customer retention and user retention, as users are less likely to return after a negative experience.
Remember that design means not only first impression from an aesthetic image. There are many other design-related factors that have a strong impact on business, like, for example, website loading speed. Here, each second matters.
- During the first seconds of page load (0-5), each additional second of waiting causes a 4,42% loss in conversion rates (load time calculated with 3G connection). Slow or poor experiences can directly impact customer loyalty and brand loyalty, as users may choose competitors who offer faster, more reliable service.
- A 2019 research by Unbounce found that 45% of people would be less likely to make a purchase and 36% would be less likely to return to the website if they had to wait longer than expected.
The same research found that most people prioritize load speed to visual effects, such as animations, videos, and even photos, in some cases. Providing a seamless user experience is crucial to prevent users from leaving and to keep them engaged.
The importance of page speed load is not a surprise for most product owners. But why are websites still too slow, then? The answer might be, because of the internet speed. People working in tech are likely to have faster than average internet speed that is different from what an average user has.
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That is why product owners are likely to be biased unless they conduct proper user research. And here comes the next argument.
Poor UX is a key factor leading to abandonment, missed opportunities, and loss of both customer and brand loyalty.
User testing reveals how differently users interact
- People working in tech can assume that young people are tech-savvy almost from birth. However, it’s not completely true. Research states that only 68% of internet users aged 18-29 are very confident using digital devices to do the things they need to do online.
This means that about 32% of users don’t feel very confident. What does it mean for product owners and designers? It means that using digital devices is not that easy for many people, even if they do it every day and it’s definitely profitable to invest in learning your target audience’s needs to create intuitive experiences for them and improve user experiences through inclusive and accessible design.
This way, to succeed in the market, our client PrimePro took time to learn its audience and created an easy-to-understand interface for people that don’t spend much time using mobile apps, while Stradigi invested in redesigning their low-code AI platform to make it understandable for business users.
How do we know that users with different skills and confidence levels find your product easy to use? You guessed it, test. Conducting user experience testing and usability testing are essential for identifying and fixing usability issues. User experience testing and UX testing are critical steps in evaluating your product, reducing user frustration, and ensuring your design meets the needs of all users.
User research boosts business performance
- Companies, where user research is well integrated across the product development process by UX professionals, are more likely to notice a positive impact on business metrics (30%-70% difference compared to the companies where user research is only the designer’s job). UX insights derived from thorough research inform design decisions, helping to identify and resolve usability issues. This leads to increased customer satisfaction and customer engagement, both of which are crucial for business success.
Adaptation for mobile is a must
- In 2021, 54,5% of global website traffic was generated by mobile devices (excluding tablets). A significant portion of this web traffic comes from smartphone users, highlighting the need for a well-designed mobile interface that functions reliably to ensure seamless navigation and interaction.
When your product is not mobile-friendly, it would miss many users. Many people don’t even own a laptop or PC, as they can do most of the things on mobile or tablet. Statistics show that there are even more people who use only mobile phones than those who use only desktop. Good mobile UX is essential for smartphone users, as it directly impacts engagement, satisfaction, and conversion rates. Mobile app UX also plays a critical role in driving user retention and business performance.
- In 2021, there were 4,66 billion active internet users in the world (59,5% of humans). 92,6% (4,32 billion) of them use their mobile devices to access the internet. Many online shoppers exclusively use mobile devices for their shopping decisions, making it crucial for commerce websites and e commerce websites to meet user expectations with optimized mobile sites and user friendly interfaces. Incorporating interactive elements can further engage users and enhance the mobile experience.
- At the same time, conversion rates are slightly higher for desktop than mobile. Global Monetate Q1 report 2020 showed that mobile conversion rates were at 1.81% with desktop at 1.98% and tablets at 2.92%. Responsive design is key to improving conversion rates for mobile users and ensuring mobile sites deliver a consistent experience across devices. Mobile is important for discovery and browsing, but some things people still prefer to buy on desktop.
When you know your customers well and have evidence that they would only use the desktop version, you can save resources on having a mobile app. However, for any website design being responsive is an absolute must, also for the following reason.
- By 2022, 70% of all websites are on mobile-indexing, and all the new websites will belong to this group. This means that Google ranking is calculated based on the mobile version instead of the desktop one. So, a website that is not optimized for mobile would appear lower in search — on desktop, as well.
User experience is everyone's job
The answer “Who owns user experience?” doesn’t necessarily mean “UX professional”.
- 16% of respondents of a survey by UserZoom said that everybody on the team owns user experience. What is more, 14% claim that at C-level each business unit is responsible for UX. This includes digital designers and web developers, whose roles are crucial in shaping user experience and ensuring seamless customer interactions at every touchpoint.
These numbers are close for both small and big (over 5,000 employees) companies. That is why we collaborate closely with our clients throughout the whole work process, recognizing that a company's credibility is based on the collective efforts of the team in delivering quality UX.
What about real examples?
Statistics for user experience often tend to be outdated, blurry, and easily manipulated. Not all the data that we refer to would be approved by a professional statistician. Yet, it gives us hints and outlines the trends. Some people who may find the abovementioned arguments not convincing may be more impressed by numbers from real-life cases. In particular, user experience statistics from case studies provide valuable data points that highlight the impact of design decisions on business outcomes and user engagement. Additionally, as emerging trends and the evolving digital landscape continue to shape the UX field, these case studies become even more relevant for adapting to new challenges.
- Most of the articles claiming that design can increase conversions by 2,5%, 35%, or 591% refer to specific case studies, often focusing on metrics such as website visitors and engagement rates.
Nothing promises you the same result as in a case study, but people like to follow successful companies like Intuit, Airbnb, or Uber — and we know they did a good job with design. For example, a UX focused site redesign led by Human Factors International has been cited as a benchmark for usability improvements and business growth, demonstrating the authority and expertise they bring to the field.
A carefully chosen case study or a piece of statistics can prove almost any point. To prove the importance of user testing, there is an old story from 2010 on how Microsoft chose this particular shade of blue for the links: the color that performed best during user testing, is claimed to have added $80 million to annual revenue.
And here is a recent story to support our arguments that design has an impact: in 2021, Citibank lost $500 million because an employee didn’t check the right checkbox. If you see the UX design of the bank software, you would totally understand him. (Talking about banks, we have an article on Fintech UX design hurdles).
Finally, here’s another statistic from our client NWORX, a corporate learning management platform. We assisted them in solving the issue of negative feedback through redesign.
The most reliable UX stats? Your own research
While businesses increasingly recognize UX’s value, effectively measuring its impact remains a challenge. This doesn’t mean you should go and run a research with 5 000 participants to ensure an unbiased report. When we focus on a single product, small things like Google Analytics or detailed email surveys would do a lot.
If you want to track the impact of UX design on your business, start with regular tracking of key SaaS metrics, usability metrics, and UX design KPIs. Analyzing user behavior helps you understand how people interact with your product, while deriving UX insights from this data can identify areas for improvement and optimize usability. Be sure to measure and optimize search functionality as part of your UX evaluation, as it plays a crucial role in content discovery and user engagement. Tracking engagement metrics is essential for engaging users and ensuring your design strategies are effective. Improved UX can also lead to reduced customer support costs by making your product more intuitive and minimizing user confusion. Seeing the change in your personal data is more important than all the statistics from the reports out there.
Ready to experience firsthand how design can transform your business? Reach out to us and discover the impact of tailored design solutions on your unique goals and objectives.
