A short guide on UX redesign and how to know when your product needs one

In a rapidly changing and ever evolving world of modern technologies and new gadgets that appear every few months, each software product needs a regular update both in terms of external appearance and internal compounds. In particular, one thing that can play a major role in freshening up an outdated app and changing the way users interact with it for the better is UX redesign. 

What is UX redesign? 

UX redesign is a multi-step process that involves assessing the product, studying its analytics, user behavior patterns, negative user feedback and other valuable data to perform the following changes aimed at improving the product’s usability and making it align more with users needs. Redesign doesn’t necessarily have to be radical: its scale depends on the actual state of the product, its age, the exact type of issues it has and its owners’ request. Sometimes a product needs just an incremental redesign, which involves making a stable working UX more modern and refined, while a product with fundamental issues requires a total rethink in every aspect. 

Signs your product needs redesign

• Growing number of complaints & support tickets 

User feedback is a direct reflection of the product’s state in terms of usability issues and pain points. The growing number of tech support tickets, especially in case the overwhelming amount of them focuses on the same exact negative issues, is a sign your product doesn’t do its job properly and needs a major improvement. Combining user feedback with analytical tools helps to identify which problems exactly lead to the user frustration and serves as a starting point for an actual redesign. Ignoring complaints, on the contrary, only makes them grow progressively. 

• Users drop off at certain steps

Sometimes the product might look like it has a totally fine UX, but users keep dropping off when onboarding or in the middle of completing certain tasks, like filling in the form. This indicates that users like the overall idea of your product when they start interacting with it, but then something in its UX makes them frustrated. If the number of users who complete the task is much lower compared to the number of those who initially started, it means a certain problematic part within the user journey needs to be identified and redesigned – for example, there might be the need to simplify some steps or to reduce cognitive load at certain points. 

• The product looks outdated

One of the most obvious reasons for redesign is when the product starts looking outdated or hasn’t had any alterations in its design for a few years. No matter how perfect the product’s idea is, its interface and usability is what defines how users perceive it, how much they trust it and whether they feel satisfied with their user experience. It’s important to note that making the design look fresh and modern doesn’t necessarily involve making it trendy. 

• The design is not responsive enough

From the perspective of modern technology, responsive and adaptable design that once was considered an extra feature has now become a basic necessity. The market is flooded with multiple types of devices with different screen sizes and constantly evolving operational systems, and if your product doesn’t perform equally well on them, it’s time to consider redesign. To save time and budget, it’s worth focusing on devices that are most commonly used by your audience first, which is determined with the help of research tools. 

• The product doesn’t reflect the brand

Any app or website is a part of the brand it represents, and its UX design must reflect the brand both visually and as a whole. A common problem is when design doesn’t align with the brand – whether because it has become outdated with time and couldn’t keep up with the changes the brand has been going through, or because it was initially built in a way that mismatches with the brand design and philosophy. Consistency between the brand and its software product provides users with a sense of trust and clarity, and in case your app lacks that, it calls for a UX redesign. 

• You lose users to competitors

The competition on the software products market is higher than ever, which makes it easy for users to choose another similar product over yours in case of even the slightest inconvenience. If you are dealing with a sudden user outflow, there is a chance another product lures away your audience with a more expanded functionality or more pleasing interface. In this case, it is time to conduct thorough user research through taking user interviews and studying feedback to identify what exactly your product lacks in terms of functionality, alongside with analyzing competitors to see what their app offers that your does not. Conducting a UX redesign taking into account users needs and expectations can help your product regain trust and value on the market.

• You want to integrate AI

With the AI fever being on the rise, many companies are rushing to embed AI features and chatbots into their apps, which in most cases requires a thorough redesign. What’s important here is to use AI reasonably instead of blindly following trends. The product should be filled with relevant, useful features that enhance user experience and do not lead to cognitive overload. 

UX redesign steps

• Define goals

Before starting an actual redesign process, it’s necessary to define why exactly your product needs it and what you want to achieve with that. Is your goal to give the product a fresh makeover, or is there a serious UX issue that needs to be fixed? Setting the goals correctly will help you organize the process in a way that your exact situation calls for, as well as guide you through the process sequentially, helping to focus attention only on what really matters.

• Analyze data/metrics

The next step is to define the current state of the product’s UX by using analytical tools, conducting user interviews, studying feedback and combining other methods to get a full picture of all the issues and pain points that need to be addressed. 

• Prioritize issues

After you’ve defined everything that has to be redesigned, it’s time to prioritize issues. The more issues the product has, the more tempting it is to fix everything at once. But in reality, redesign requires a more consecutive approach, moving from fixing more high-impact issues that affect user experience deeply to a minor ones that can wait. 

• Create prototype and test it right away

When all the necessary data is collected and all decisions regarding the redesign are made, it’s time to start creating a new version of the product or some parts of the product. To avoid wasting time and budget, it is recommended to solve one issue at a time by creating low-fidelity prototypes and testing them on real users right away, gathering feedback and making adjustments along the way. Repeat this process until the users are satisfied with the new feature, and then move along to fixing the next issue. 

• Launch the new design and monitor feedback

Launching an official version of the redesigned product isn’t the end of the redesign process. After all the updates are rolled out, it is time to monitor metrics and compare them with the metrics you’ve gathered before the redesign. If you don’t see any significant improvements in user experience after the new version launch, it means the goals of the redesign are not achieved and there is a need to try out other solutions. 

Conclusion

UX redesign isn’t just about improving the product’s visuals. It’s about providing users with a more intuitive and seamless navigation, making the product align more with the brand it represents, and rebuilding UX design in a way that it both satisfies users and promotes brand growth. It involves a lot of decision making on which parts of the product need rethinking and which should stay untouched. Redesign takes time — sometimes it takes months of testing prototypes with different ideas one after another until you find a design solution that actually works for your product. But in the end, it not only benefits your users, but also helps you to explore the product more deeply and present it in a different perspective that is much more evolved than the initial version was.