Do you think early users care about design or just function?
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I’ve been thinking about how much design quality actually matters in the earliest stages of a product.
Some users don’t seem to mind rough edges if the tool genuinely solves a problem. Others instantly bounce if the UI doesn’t feel “trustworthy.”
As founders, we often obsess over every pixel but maybe early adopters just want momentum and clarity.
What’s your take?
Would you rather ship a rough MVP fast or delay for a polished first impression?
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I've been testing and implementing a variety of new AI-focused tools, and my primary gripe with them is their UI and usability. For example, there are several new services touting themselves as image or video tools that allow you to use a variety of different models (Higgsfield, OpenArt, Freepik, etc). While that's fine for playing around, none of them are built around a user experience that fits into a workflow.
If I want to create a character, refine the appearance, and animate it while preserving scene and character consistency, it requires jumping around to different areas, or between different tools altogether to get the functionality I need. The only places I've seen so far that seem to be considering this are Google, Adobe, and LTX Studios.
Design AND function are absolutely critical when it comes to long-term user adoption and usability. It's not surprising to see these companies have a lot of software engineering roles open, but no posts for design or product people who are more focused on the potential audience and how the tools are used, rather than just what the models can do.
really depends on where the product is being positioned. If it's a completely new product category with no competitors and fulfiles a dire need, I don't think the UI needs to be super polished. Users will be desperate enough to ignore UI. But if its a pre-existing category and incumbents have a polished UI, then its table-stakes.
Needle
This question is great! I think they do not consciously care about design, but great design keeps them finding the functionality. A bit like in a restaurant. How the food is served and looks actually does matter. In German, we would say: "Das Auge isst mit." -> word by word translation - (The eye eats with)
Depends, if the workflows and tasks are smooth I think people will ignore a less than beautiful UI, no problem. I have, however, tried to use some new apps that I really wanted to like (a cool device sim dev tool comes to mind) but were too confusing to use, so I gave up. The key word there is clarity. I think I'm not alone in preferring a smooth but low-fi experience over a beautiful but wonky one. UX is not just UI visual design, etc.