Can bad design make a good MVP look like a bad idea?

Everyone says an MVP doesn’t need to look polished. Just build the core feature, get it in front of users, and see what happens.

I agree with most of that.

But there’s something that bothers me about the “design can wait” approach.

Say you launch a simple tool with a genuinely useful feature. The UI is a little confusing, the layout feels unfinished, and users aren’t quite sure what to do next.

People try it once and leave.

Did they leave because the idea wasn’t useful? Or because the product made it too hard to see the value?

I’m not saying every MVP needs beautiful visuals or fancy interactions. Spending weeks perfecting buttons before testing anything is probably a waste of time.

But I think there’s a minimum level of design quality needed to give an idea a fair chance.

Otherwise, you might end up rejecting a good idea because of a bad first experience.