Ritzie WilliamsUX & Product Design Leader | Data‑Driven, User‑Centered, and Focused on Business Growth | Strategy, Research & Scalable Systems

When flashy design kills functionality, everybody loses.

Name: When flashy design kills functionality, everybody loses.
Uploaded: 2025-06-20T18:00:07+00:00
Duration: 1 min 6 s
Channel: Ritzie Williams
Description: In this YouTube excerpt, the speaker critiques a current UX design trend that prioritizes visual uniqueness—such as unconventional scrolling, heavy…

20 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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1:06

In this YouTube excerpt, the speaker critiques a current UX design trend that prioritizes visual uniqueness—such as unconventional scrolling, heavy animations, and large, flying‑in images—over core usability. Referencing Jacob’s Law, they argue that users expect websites to behave in familiar ways, and deviating from these expectations can hinder tasks like locating a CRM system, especially when large assets slow page load times. The speaker emphasizes that functionality, not aesthetic flair, is the primary driver of product success, noting that many highly successful products are not visually striking but are extremely useful and reliable, leading users to return repeatedly.

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What's a UX design trend that's hurting usability? To me, it's a focus on visual uniqueness over usability. Jacob's Law says that users are using websites and yours should function how they expect, right? The way theirs works. It's something along that line. Basically, you should meet the user at their expectation. And when your website is trying to be unique and scrolls in different ways and has stuff flying in and— if it's not visually focused, then that can be problematic. For example, if the user is looking for a CRM system and you have huge images that are flying in and it's taking too long to load, that hurts the usability of your product. And it's an emphasis on visuals other than functionality. And I think functionality is the key to a successful product. Lots of products— some of the most successful products are not visually that appealing. But they're super functional and they're useful, and that's why people continue to go back to them and use them, and those companies are successful.