Pay down your design debt to acquire, retain, and engage users
Design debt represents the full spectrum of product design work that your team knows should be done, but has been deprioritized. It includes everything from lack of design thinking processes to specific UI bugs that need fixing. Learn how making incremental progress on your design debt can drive the product outcomes you want.
“Running a well-oiled-product-machine means that it needs to work under the hood as well as outside of it. Tackling design debt expands your product's longevity by putting internal processes in place to respond to your customer's ever-evolving needs without sacrificing the quality of your product.
Design Director, thoughtbot
Defining the problem
What is design debt?
We often talk about technical debt - the known bugs that haven’t been squashed, tooling and frameworks that haven’t been updated, lack of testing, intimidating dependencies no one wants to tamper with. Design debt is the lesser-known cousin of tech debt and it’s just as important for meeting your product and business objectives.
A few examples of design debt include:
- Design system is out of date and doesn't support future work
- Product accessibility has been neglected
- Building new features based on hunches rather than data
- Lack of user testing or observing analytics
- Taking a micro view of workflows
Design to the rescue
Use design to boost your product adoption and growth
When time and talent feels constrained, teams sometimes default to shipping features without applying design thinking. But paying down design debt is an incredibly powerful source of user value. Taking care of your design debt enables you to hit your product metrics.
- Design System consistency strengthens your UX and brand leading to user delight and retention
- Accessibility improvements expand your audience reach and usability increasing user acquisition
- User research derisks new feature investments which improves adoption
- User testing fuels all things Product Led Growth - the key to iterating to viral growth
- User workflow optimization increases conversion and user engagement
Images from a design sprint
Design resources from thoughtbot
Get started tackling design debt
Design thinking exercises
A running list of exercises that are great for understanding, ideation, and collaboratively converging on solutions.
Best practices for designing apps people actually use
5 straightforward steps for a human-centered design process that embraces uncertainty and iteration.
Tips for conducting user research
Some guidelines to help you conduct an effective and enjoyable interview (for you and the interviewee!).
Intro to product accessibility
An overview of the goals, benefits, allowances, and tools to get you started in digital accessibility.
Applying Jobs-to-be-Done theory
Jobs-to-be-Done is a mental model that can be used to orient product development around solving meaningful problems.
When a design audit is right for your team
Design audits help get your team on the same page and identify design inconsistencies that have surfaced over time.
“Ultimately, confused users do not convert or form long-lasting relationships with brands. Design audits help get your team on the same page by ironing out any inconsistencies that crept up over time, whether due to rotating team members or lack of documentation.
Designer, thoughtbot
thoughtbot Design Services
Learn more about a few of our team's specialty areas
Product Design
From strategy to implementation, we collaborate with you to design experiences that build successful products and businesses.
Design Research
Gain insights, build up team knowledge, and set the stage for innovative solutions.
Usability Audit
A strategic approach to diagnosing usability issues and optimizing user experience journeys to ensure your users are satisfied.
Design Accessibility
Whether you want to start with a solid foundation, or update an existing product, having an accessible experience is fundamental.
Interface Design Audit
Good interface design builds user trust in your product and helps your team stay consistent and quick in implementation.
Let's talk
Let us know if you want a complimentary design consultation.
