5 business risks of over-designing!

As businesses, more often than not, creative work is critiqued based on how visually attractive it is. This is particularly true in the field of digital designs where a creatively designed interface is selected as compared to an interface which is created after designing a comprehensive user experience.

Designing is a method to showcase information clearly, effectively and seamlessly across multiple platforms while allowing creative elements to retain user attention.

Simply put, overdesigning refers to creating designs that do not meet one or more of the parameters of clarity, effectiveness and seamlessness while focusing more on using unnecessary creative elements that aim to enhance visual appeal.

While these designs might look captivating, they fail to achieve the intended goal and often deviate from the mission of the design creating a reversal effect, leading to a downfall in its effectiveness.

These risks are observed for a range of digital designs from your mobile application, websites and dashboards.

Here are the five risks which business will face from overdesigning anything digital.

1. The redundant WOW factor.

The number one reason why a product and digital design ends up being a creative mess is the creation of a ‘WOW’ factor. Designers often take this path up to impress their clients and create designs that include alluring elements. This is a classic example where the designer chooses aesthetics over usability, also known as the selection of form over function.

While the ‘wow’ factor is created through the aesthetically appealing work, visual communication does not take place.

While we understand that it is important for designs to be neat, attractive and visually engaging, it is also important to provide a complete and comprehensive user experience.

It will lose the ability to showcase the true meaning of the digital product as the user’s attention is towards the aesthetics creating a misconception in the user’s mind while absorbing information.

2. The effects on the user funnel.

The user funnel is defined by a series of steps that need to be taken to reach a particular outcome. The outcome here is referred to as a conversion (simply put, the completion of the goal) For example, for an e-commerce website, the most positive funnel of their users will refer:

1. Searching a product

2. Adding the product to the cart

3. Paying for the product (Conversion)

On each of these steps, customers see bits of information that are relevant to the product and help them create and complete the purchase.

In order to stand out, some digital websites utilize unique and creative methods to reach a conversion. The reversal effect confuses the user in such cases, as the users are used to receiving experiences in a certain pattern and breaking these patterns causes confusion. The conversion/retention metrics drop and users feel lost.

3. The short term vs the long term effect

Designs are perceived to be more attractive when the engagement with them is not for the long term. When users often see a design, it tends to lose its charm and is considered ‘normal’.

An attractive design will often be seen as an additional skill and will add value for the company where the engagement of the audience with the digital medium is not for the long term.

Based on your audience and product, certain parts of the function can be given up. For example, if you expect your business users to visit your digital platform just once or twice, the alluring elements of design can be added to increase business value. While, most businesses expect a recurring audience and it is necessary to emphasize on UX elements like visual architecture, visibility, navigation etc.

4. Where is my user?

Digital platforms are commenced after conducting comprehensive user research and building a robust information architecture. This includes creating extensive clarity and navigation across the digital platform. Once you zero in on these elements, the aesthetics are added which give a strong final output. However, overdesigning tends to hamper the user experience by creating complex visual hierarchies.

Visual placement and redundant micro animations complicate the navigation systems leaving the users perplexed. This could add to the frustration levels and make information accessibility difficult, creating an illusion where users feel like they are lost.

5. The cascading effect

Over-designing can create a cascading effect. For example, a food delivery business has 3 digital platforms, a website, a mobile application and a dashboard. In order to ensure consistency and seamlessness, it becomes imperative to replicate user navigation across every platform.

This creates a cascading effect where user experience is distorted due to a complicated interface being replicated. This causes an impact on the overall experience obtained by the consumer.

In simpler words, it sacrifices the user experience in the long term by adopting design elements that satisfy the short term requirement of a visual appeal.

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