It still surprises me how often I bump into companies that treat UX like some optional extra – the fluffy upgrade, the leather seats, the “maybe one day when we’re bigger.”
And look, I get it. I work at Booking, one of the biggest travel companies in the world. UX is baked into everything. You see it at scale and it just makes sense: the research, the iterations, the constant tweaking… it’s all about squeezing as much juice as possible out of how people actually experience what you’ve built.
And that’s the funny thing – when UX is done right, you barely notice it. Apple is the classic example. You open a new app and somehow you already understand how it works. That’s not an accident. That’s intentional design language, consistency, and respect for the person on the other side of the screen. It’s invisible, but it’s powerful.
Now… swing the spotlight over to smaller companies and the contrast is wild.
The smaller the shop, the less likely UX even gets a mention. They want the thing to work, sure… but they don’t want to spend time or money making it easy, intuitive, or – dare I say it – enjoyable. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen that glazed-over expression when UX comes up. It’s the same look someone gives when you tell them the warranty is extra. They assume you’re upselling, not trying to save them from future pain.
It’s the classic “buy cheap, buy twice” strategy, just applied to product design. Skip the UX, ship the clunky version, and then act surprised when customers don’t stick around or support tickets pile up. Suddenly all that “money saved” is leaking out in refunds, churn, rewrites, and bug-fixes you shouldn’t have needed.
And the annoying part? UX isn’t some luxury for enterprise. It’s not a perk you unlock at Level 50 Business.
Small companies arguably need UX more, not less. They have fewer second chances. They don’t have the brand loyalty, the marketing budget, or the global footprint to paper over a frustrating experience. One bad flow can be enough to send someone to a competitor – and that’s it, they’re gone.
Good UX pays for itself.
Bad UX makes you pay for it.
Not everyone cares, true. But everyone benefits. And the companies that realise that early? They’re the ones who stop firefighting and start building things people actually enjoy using.
