The hidden UX/UI design problems that quietly cost you time and money

Most digital teams have a rough idea of their big problems. The website needs new content. The CRM is clunky. Someone really needs to fix that old form that breaks on mobile.

What often gets missed are the hundreds of tiny UX issues that never quite make it into a brief. A label that confuses people. A call to action that looks like a heading. A cookie banner that covers a key button on mobile. None of these breaks the site on its own. Together, they slow everything down.

This build up is often called UX debt. It is the gap between the UX/UI design you intended to deliver and what people actually experience today. For organisations working across Ireland and Europe, and especially those juggling commercial work with EU funded projects, UX debt becomes a silent cost that shows up in support tickets, lost conversions and manual workarounds.

The good news is that you can treat UX debt in a structured way. You can identify it, prioritise it and pay it down over time, rather than waiting until the next big redesign.

What UX debt really is in plain language

It helps to think of UX debt as the design equivalent of “we will fix that later”.

Every time a team ships something with a known usability compromise, or adds a quick patch instead of a proper fix, a little UX debt is created. For example:

• You know a form is longer than it needs to be, but shortening it would delay launch
• A new feature is squeezed into an existing navigation pattern that is already crowded
• Old content is left in place because nobody had time to rewrite it for the new UX/UI design

None of these decisions is wrong on its own. They come from deadline pressure, limited resources and shifting priorities. The problem is what happens over time when they stack up.

UX debt is not technical debt, although the two often exist side by side. Technical debt affects how easy it is to change the code. UX debt affects how easy it is for people to complete tasks. Both need attention if you want digital products that are manageable for your team and usable for your audience.

How UX debt shows up in real journeys

You can often feel UX debt before you can see it on a diagram. It shows up in the way people behave around your site or platform.

People ask for help when they should not need to

Support teams notice that the same questions keep coming in:

• Where do I download my invoice
• How do I reset my password
• Which course should I apply for
• Where are the latest project deliverables

In many cases, the information exists. UX/UI design simply is not presenting it in a way that people can find at speed.

Internal teams avoid the official journey

Sales and project teams start to work around the interface because it is easier than using it as intended.

They save direct links to hidden pages, send PDFs instead of pointing to the site, or share long email explanations rather than trusting the online application form.

This is a clear sign that UX debt has made the official journey too slow or fragile for everyday use.

Conversion and completion rates are weaker than you expect

In analytics, UX debt appears as:

• High drop off on forms or multi step journeys
• Good traffic to key pages but low click through to the next step
• Strong engagement on some devices and surprisingly weak performance on others

For EU project platforms, there may be plenty of visitors but very few downloads or interactions with the content that matters for reporting.

Why UX/UI design debt matters to your organisation

It is easy to treat minor UX issues as small annoyances. Over time, they create real cost and risk.

• Staff spend more time helping users complete tasks that should be self service
• Opportunities are lost when visitors give up before completing a form or application
• Project websites look active, but stakeholders cannot easily see impact or find outputs
• Pressure builds for a full redesign long before the existing site has reached its real potential

In a competitive environment, where digital channels carry more and more of the load for sales, service and reporting, UX/UI design is not just about appearance. It is about reducing friction so that your team and your audience can get things done.

How to spot UX debt in your UX/UI design

You do not need a large research budget to start identifying UX debt. A few simple inputs can reveal a lot.

Listen to support and front line teams

Ask people who deal directly with customers, partners or learners:

• Which questions or problems come up again and again
• Which links they send most often to fix confusion
• Which parts of the site or platform they actively avoid because they are hard to use

Front line staff usually know where UX/UI design is letting people down long before it shows clearly in analytics.

Look at your analytics with fresh eyes

Instead of focusing only on total page views or sessions, look specifically at:

• Drop off at each step of a key journey
• The difference in behaviour between desktop and mobile
• The performance of forms, downloads and key calls to action

Sudden drops, especially on mobile, are often hints that UX debt has reached the point where it is holding back results.

Run quick, informal usability tests

You can learn a lot by watching a small number of people use your site.

Ask three to five colleagues, customers or partners to complete a task while you observe. For example, “find and download the latest project report” or “request a demo for this service”. Take notes on where they slow down, what they miss and where they express doubt.

Where you see repeated hesitation, there is UX debt worth addressing.

A practical plan to reduce UX debt

Trying to fix everything at once can feel overwhelming. It is better to treat UX debt as a manageable backlog that you reduce step by step.

1. Make a UX debt list

Capture each issue in a simple list or board. For each one, note:

• What the problem is
• Who is affected
• Where it appears in the journey
• Any evidence you have, such as support queries or analytics

This does not need to be complicated. The goal is to move UX debt from vague frustration into visible work.

2. Prioritise by impact and effort

Not all UX issues are equal. Focus first on problems that:

• Affect high value journeys such as sales, applications or partner reporting
• Cause confusion for many users, not only a small niche
• Can be improved without deep technical work

This gives you quick wins that build confidence and show the value of taking UX/UI design seriously.

3. Fix issues in clusters, not one by one

Where possible, group related items. For example:

• All the friction around a key form
• All content gaps on a particular service or project page
• All mobile layout problems on your main user journeys

Addressing a cluster creates a noticeable improvement in one part of the experience, rather than scattering effort across many minor tweaks.

4. Build UX checks into future work

The most powerful way to manage UX debt is to stop creating unnecessary new debt.

Include basic UX steps in every digital project:

• Clear definition of target users and their goals
• Simple journey mapping for key tasks
• At least one round of usability checks before launch

This does not need to slow you down. In practice, it speeds up delivery by reducing rework later.

Conclusion: turning UX debt into UX advantage

Every organisation carries some UX debt. The question is whether you let it accumulate quietly or treat it as something you can actively manage.

By spotting UX/UI design issues early, capturing them in a structured way and fixing them in focused sprints, you turn a hidden cost into a clear improvement path. Your website and platforms become easier to use, your teams spend less time firefighting and your digital channels are better prepared to support growth, partnership and reporting.

Handled in this way, UX/UI design is not just about making things look modern. It becomes a practical, measurable part of how you deliver value to customers, partners and project stakeholders across Ireland and Europe.

Assess your UX debt