"Always", from the most basic to the most sophisticated software, unless you have zero user interaction even indirectly, which I’ve never seen. Of course in some cases you need less worry, in most cases no one will die from having bad UX.
It doesn’t matter if it will hinder development, you do things for users, if it doesn’t have a good experience you’re doing something bad. Of course there are other variables to be analyzed in each project. And it varies from case to case. If everyone cared about UX they wouldn’t have software as bad as we have.
UX is very important! Point.
- Work is UX.
- Give the right result, expected, always, at the right time, the right way is UX.
- Using right terms for the public is UX.
- Not being excessive is UX.
- Being easy to use and learning (intuitive for your audience) is UX.
- Allow agility and easy correction of misconceptions is UX.
- Guiding the user with difficulty effectively is UX. Monitoring can be UX.
- Running on the easy platform with the right interface is UX.
- Being beautiful and nice is UX.
- Being fast is UX.
- Make no mistake is UX.
- Do not cheat the user is UX.
- And the list can continue...
UX is not just visual, let’s be clear, many people confuse UX with UI. The first is experience as a whole, the second is interaction with the user directly, and even this part is not just visual. UX is to make the user feel good using your software. It is not him who is dumb for not using your software, it is you who failed to achieve your UX goal.
There are things that are natural, it’s not a matter of deciding whether or not to do it. There are aspects that can complicate the software by not having good UX. Many cases will cause recall, are you prepared for this? Are you in the contract? Have budget for this?
Does the budget allow you to handle all aspects of UX well? In a formal or just intuitive way of what you should do? You can never analyze it without looking at all this.
If you can do your best 'cause you’d do less than that?
"Being cute" is not a priority of UX. It is better to work well. Of course the ideal is to unite the two things. Example: the old website of the.br registry was ugly to hurt, but the UX was much better, you could see everything easily on a few screens, had access to everything in a few clicks. Today is a heap of frameworks, clumsy (but it looks cute, who uses rarely does not notice as much as became precarious)
– Bacco