Most products fail by mixing all patterns at once:

Sidebar+top nav+tabs+mega menu
It becomes navigation soup.
Pick one primary pattern. Stay consistent.

Findability test:

Give a user a task.
If it takes over 30 seconds, your navigation failed.
If users can’t find it, it doesn’t exist. (04/04)

Command Palette (cmd+k)

Works for: power users
Strengths: fast, searchable
Fails: when it becomes the only navigation

Mega Menu

Works for: e-commerce, content-heavy sites
Fails: B2B SaaS, users don’t browse, they hunt. (03/04)

Top Nav (horizontal)

Works for: marketing sites, simple SaaS
Strengths: familiar, balanced
Fails: too many items or complex sub-menus

Tabs:

Works for: switching between related views
Strengths: clear “you’re here” indicator
Fails: more than 5 tabs becomes chaos (02/04)

6/ THE REAL DESIGN ROI: Bad UX costs you:

$1.35M in lost signups
$75K in support costs
$25K in slower sales
$40K+ in preventable churn Total: $1.49M/year

Design investment: $80-120K Payback period: 3-4 weeks Year one ROI: 12-18x
Design isn't an expense. It's the highest investment you'll make.

5/ THE CHURN CALCULATOR:

Monthly churn rate: 6% (industry avg: 3-4% for good UX)
Extra churn from bad UX: 2% Annual revenue: $2M
Lost revenue from UX churn: $40K/year year one $120K+ by year three Cost to fix core UX issues: $40-60K

Break-even: 12-18 months. Then pure profit.

4/ THE SALES CYCLE TAX:

4.5 months With confusing product: +6 weeks (extra demos hand-holding 'let me check with the team') Cost per deal: +2.5 sales touches × $500 = $1250 per deal 20 deals/year = $25000 in extended sales costs Better UX = fewer questions = faster deals = more revenue per rep

3/ THE SUPPORT COST MULTIPLIER:

Current state:
1500 support tickets/month
35% are 'how do I' questions
$12 avg cost per ticket UX confusion cost: 525 tickets × $12 = $6300/month = $75600/year Better UX = 70% fewer confusion tickets = $52920 saved

2/ THE ONBOARDING LEAK:

Your signup flow:
- 1000 signups/month
- 40% complete signup (industry avg: 65%)
- $450 CAC per user Lost users: 250/month × $450 = $112500/month Annual cost of bad onboarding UX: $1.35M Cost to redesign onboarding: $25K ROI: 54x in year one

6/ THE DESIGN DEBT PRIORITY MATRIX:

High usage + high confusion = fix immediately
High usage + low confusion = optimize later (it works don't break it)
Low usage + high confusion = delete or hide
Low usage + low confusion = ignore

You can't fix everything. Fix what touches revenue.

5/ AUDIT YOUR SALES DEMO SCRIPT:

Read through your sales demo script. Count how many times you say: 'Don't worry about this' or 'This part is confusing but........' or 'We're redesigning this' Each phrase = design debt that's slowing deals.

Clean product = shorter demos = faster closes.

4/ COUNT YOUR SUPPORT TICKETS BY CATEGORY:

30%+ tickets about 'how do I....' = design debt.

Users shouldn't need help for basic flows. Each ticket costs $8-12 in support time. 1000 confusion tickets/month = $96K-144K/year in preventable costs.

Fix the UX. Redirect resources to growth.

3/ MAP YOUR ABANDONMENT POINTS:

Install Hotjar/Fullstory for 1 week. Watch session recordings.

Look for:
Users clicking repeatedly (expected something to happen)
Cursor hovering confused (looking for next step)
Rage clicks (frustration)

These are your UX bleed points. Where revenue dies.

2/ THE 60-SECOND NEW USER TEST:

Grab someone who's never seen your product. No engineers. No employees. Start timer. Screen record. Say nothing.

Can they: understand what it does complete core action feel confident?

If no → you found your design debt. Fix this before adding features.

This is a very important observation. AI is giving people a way to turn confused ideas into something that looks orderly and logical. The danger is that they become more convincing to the person who already believes them.

6/ HIRE DESIGN AS INFRASTRUCTURE NOT DECORATION:

Design → fewer support tickets → smaller support team → more runway Design → faster activation → higher LTV → better unit economics Design → shorter sales cycles → more deals closed → Series B unlocked