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We have a good set of algorithms which are the core of our business. Our product itself works mostly as a plugin inside other workflows. There is web based UI which is used by some of our customers but it is not why people buy our software for.

Honestly speaking, our web UI does not look great and is not the best user experience out there. IMHO, it looks amateurish and I feel that it would affect the overall feel our our product. My manager disagrees, and he is only concerned about the functionality (of our algorithms) and could not care less about the web based UI/Setup screen quality etc.

I feel that new customers would not be impressed by our product when they first use it through our UI. What is the best way to convince higher ups, that UI is very much important part of the whole package and it greatly affects the impression that people get using it.

Am I being right here saying that the UI has to look great for the whole product to sell well and scale up?

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  • 4
    Similar question: ux.stackexchange.com/questions/4567/…
    – CJF
    Apr 18, 2013 at 18:58
  • 3
    It sounds like you should take it above your manager's head. Your manager obviously lacks enthusiasm for making the company more mature.
    – William
    Apr 18, 2013 at 19:02

2 Answers 2

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The UI is probably the most important thing when talking about selling a product. The first thing people see, as of my experience, is the UI.

You get a lot of feedback about "Wow your interface is nice"/"There is that or that in the interface that could be improved", but rarely about the fonctionalities themselves. To the point where sometimes it's kind of annoying because you passed a lot of time designing the back-end of a complex functionality and get feedback about a "link misplaced" in the UI.

And this is true especially in the web. If you want a product to sell, you want people to say "WOW, I want that" after simply a glance at your application. If they don't find the UI attractive, most likely they won't even look at the rest of the application (and thus won't buy it).

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Do they (your managers) have knowledge of social networks? Tell them a story about MySpace and Facebook.

Do they have a smartphone? Tell them a story about why the iPhone sells so well and changed the industry.

Do they want a leg up on a competitor? Tell them they can talk about a 'Clean & Functional' interface during sales calls.

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  • I agree with the Facebook and iPhone UI stories, but our industry is not very customer facing. It is a product that is being used in other companies, so it won't get as many users as Faceobok and other apps do.
    – edocetirwi
    Apr 19, 2013 at 13:48
  • The point here is that they are one and the same. People expect consumer-class UI quality and experience from their enterprise apps. See Yammer, Workday, etc.
    – Max
    Apr 19, 2013 at 20:50
  • Totally agree..
    – edocetirwi
    Apr 19, 2013 at 21:17

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