When you launch a new app, there’s one question that matters more than your tech stack, your features, or even your funding: 

Do users actually want to come back to your app? 

That’s the question that keeps you awake at night. And it should. Because you don’t get second chances in the App Store or on someone’s home screen. Your app has to connect, not just function. 

A study by Amazon Web Services showed that 88% of users are unlikely to return to a site after a bad experience. And according to AppDynamics, 90% of users have abandoned an app due to poor performance. Meanwhile, Forrester reports that the ROI on UX investments is an eye-popping 9,900%. 

So yes, UX is more than buttons and layout. It's strategy. It's retention. It’s growth. And for startups where every dollar and every user counts, it could be the difference between a product that lives and one that quietly disappears from the App Store. 

Designing a great experience, however, isn’t straightforward. It's not just about wireframes and colors. It requires deep understanding of user behavior, clarity in feature prioritization, and the discipline to simplify. 

Let’s look at five deeply relevant, not-so-obvious insights that can guide your startup toward building an app users genuinely enjoy using. 

1. Stop Building for Everyone, Start Designing for Someone

   One of the biggest traps founders fall into is designing for “everyone.” You have an app that helps with remote team productivity? Cool. But are you building it for a 10-person startup in Brooklyn, or for a 500-person enterprise with offshore teams? Because the UX decisions for those two use cases look radically different. 

   
   

   Start with a real user. Give them a name, a backstory. Not a persona on a slide deck, an actual human. Watch how they use competing apps. See where they pause, struggle, rage-quit. 

   
   

   Too many early-stage apps feel like they were designed by committee. The result? A bloated interface trying to please too many people, which ends up pleasing no one. 

   
   

   Founders often skip behavioral segmentation in their UX Design process. They use demographics, not behaviors, to define their users. That’s a problem. What users do matters far more than who they are. 

   
   

2. Great Apps Don’t Just Look Good, They Feel Right

   Here’s an unpopular opinion: UI design isn’t enough. Good user interface is the minimum. What makes an app feel right is the micro-moments. 

   
   

   Think that subtle haptic feedback when you complete a task. The “aha” moment when a new user finds a feature without a tutorial. That feeling isn’t designed by accident, it’s engineered through iteration and obsessing over details. 

   
   

   A founder we worked with at a fintech startup told us his app’s retention rate jumped 18% after a micro-interaction change. The update? They made the confirmation animation after sending money feel faster, more rewarding, and removed a single step from the process. 

   
   

   Feeling fast is often more important than actually being fast. 

   
   

   That kind of insight doesn’t show up in UX Design tools. It comes from obsessing over user behavior patterns after launch.

   
   

3. Prototypes Are the Real MVPs, Use Them Like a Weapon

   MVP doesn’t mean shipping a skeleton version of your app to the public. That’s risky. What you really want is a high-fidelity prototype that feels close to real. Why? Because it gives you actionable user feedback before you've invested in code. 

   
   

   One founder we worked with created five prototypes before writing a single line of backend logic. His team tested each one with 15 real users. By prototype #3, they realized their core navigation was completely unintuitive. Fixing it later would have cost thousands in dev time. 

   
   

   2024 app design trends are leaning heavily toward rapid prototyping especially with tools like Figma’s interactive components or UXPin’s logic-based design flows. If your product design process doesn’t include multiple prototype feedback loops, you’re wasting time and money. 

   
   

   Don’t just prototype screens but prototype flows. The transitions, states, and dead ends matter more than pixel-perfect layouts at this stage.

   
   

4. Emotion is a Feature. Design for It.

   Most app design conversations focus on functionality. But think about the apps you love using. Instagram. Notion. Duolingo. These apps don’t just work, they make you feel something. 

   
   

   Duolingo’s streak reminders feel like a friend nudging you (sometimes passive-aggressively). That owl has a personality. That’s by design. It’s not fluff. It’s retention. 

   
   

   So many startup apps feel sterile. Useful, yes. But forgettable. If your app doesn’t evoke some kind of emotional response such as joy, momentum, even curiosity you’re building utility, not loyalty. 

   
   

   Founders often ask, “What’s the killer feature?” Sometimes, it’s not a feature at all. It’s the tone of your copy. The way your onboarding makes someone smile. The fact that your app says “You’re doing great” after the user finishes a tough step. 

   
   

   This is where user interface design meets brand personality. And yes, that requires collaboration between design and copy from day one not as an afterthought.

   
   

5. You Can’t Fix UX with a Feature Update

   Let’s get honest. Founders sometimes treat user complaints like bugs: “We’ll patch that in v2.” 

   
   

   But the harsh reality? If your users don’t get it now, they’re gone. You don’t get to “fix” first impressions. 

   
   

   User experience is not something you fix post-launch. It’s something you architect from day zero. And that means treating product design as a core business function not a design task. 

   
   

   Here’s a metric not enough founders track: “Time to Value” (TTV). That’s the time it takes a new user to get their first success moment. The shorter the TTV, the better your onboarding, UX writing, and product fit. 

   
   

   TTV is rarely talked about in founder circles, but it should be. Because shortening TTV directly increases retention. And retention is the metric that drives everything from funding to growth. 

A Few 2024 App Design Trends Worth Watching

If you’re planning your app in 2024, keep an eye on these:

1. Voice-first interactions: Not just voice assistants, voice input for form-heavy workflows is becoming mainstream. 

2. Contextual onboarding: Skip the 5-screen walkthroughs. Let users learn by doing, not reading. 

3. Ultra-personalization: Not just “Hi, John.” We’re talking UI that adapts based on behavior, location, and usage. 

4. Dark mode as default: It’s not just a preference anymore, it affects retention in nighttime usage. 

5. Privacy UX: How you explain data usage is now part of your product design not a legal footnote.

Final Thought

When you’re building something from scratch, it’s easy to fall in love with your own logic. But users don’t care how smart your idea is. They care how usable it feels. 

And when something feels right, users come back. Again, and again. 

So before you add another feature, ask yourself: 
Would I love using this? 

Not tolerate it. Not understand it. Actually love it. 

If the answer’s yes, you’re on the right path. 

Need help crafting an ideal web or mobile app user experience? 

If you're not sure how to begin or want experienced eyes on your UX challenges, our UI/UX team is always happy to help. From prototyping to full product design, we collaborate closely with startups to create meaningful, measurable user experiences. 

Reach out if you're ready to elevate your app's experience and earn your users' loyalty.