Good-looking web design can still fail a small product
A small web product owner spent more than $2,000 to redesign a website, which was a large share of revenue. The designer’s portfolio looked strong, and the first mockups looked polished. The problem appeared when the design had to be turned into a real product.
The screens only showed the ideal version where everything was already filled in and working. There were no screens for loading, errors, or empty states before a user has any data. Those missing pieces made the design hard to build and incomplete for real use.
Raising the issue did not lead to useful guidance for the development work, so the money mostly bought attractive visuals rather than a complete product design.
Key points
- More than $2,000 was spent on a redesign, a major cost for a small product.
- The mockups looked good but covered only perfect, filled-in screens.
- Loading, error, and empty states were missing from the design work.
- Missing product states can make development harder and weaken the user experience.
- Solo founders should agree on exact design deliverables before paying for design work.
Quick term guide
- portfolio
- A collection that showcases the work or projects someone has created.
- empty states
- Screens shown when there is no content or data yet.
- business
- An activity where you provide value to others in exchange for money.
- deliverables
- Deliverables are the specific things a hired person agrees to produce.
- maintain
- To keep an app working by fixing problems and making updates over time.
- user experience
- How easy and pleasant it is for a person to use a product.
- solo founder
- A single person who builds and runs a product or business without co-founders
- founders
- People who are starting or running their own business or project.