Lipstick on a pig describes the act of superficially improving the visual appearance of a product or feature, without addressing its deeper flaws or usability problems. This happens when designers apply a new coat of paint to a bad experience, hoping that users won\u2019t notice the core issues lurking underneath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe phrase comes from an old American saying: \u201cYou can put lipstick on a pig, but it\u2019s still a pig.\u201d<\/em> In other words, no matter how much you dress something up, it\u2019s still fundamentally the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In UX, it warns against prioritizing visual polish over fixing real user needs, broken workflows, or structural problems.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
WHEN<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ll see lipstick on a pig when:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
- A broken or confusing flow gets new colors, icons, and rounded corners, but remains just as frustrating.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- A legacy product gets a rebrand without addressing technical debt or outdated patterns.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Stakeholders demand \u201ca fresh new look\u201d while ignoring negative usability testing results.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- A marketing-driven redesign focuses only on surface impressions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s particularly common in organizations that value appearances over substance, or when time and budget only allow for a facelift instead of a real fix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WHY<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Lipstick on a pig happens because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
- It\u2019s faster and cheaper to update visuals than rethink workflows.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Teams may not have the resources, mandate, or data to tackle deeper problems.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Surface-level changes feel like progress, even if they don\u2019t solve anything meaningful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
But users aren\u2019t fooled for long. The novelty wears off, and the underlying pain points remain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HOW<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s how to avoid putting lipstick on a pig:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
- Start with research.<\/strong> Understand what\u2019s really broken before making cosmetic changes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Fix workflows first.<\/strong> Improve the structure, logic, and usability before styling.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Validate changes.<\/strong> Test with real users to ensure the redesign improves outcomes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Communicate honestly.<\/strong> Don\u2019t oversell superficial changes as a total solution.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Plan deeper work.<\/strong> If you must start with visual refreshes, set a clear roadmap to tackle root problems next.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
PRO TIP<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\nWhen planning a redesign, ask: \u201cIf we stripped away the new visuals, would the experience still feel better?\u201d If not, it\u2019s just lipstick.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
EXAMPLES<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
- A website that updates to a modern color palette but still buries key actions under poor navigation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- A SaaS dashboard with flashy new charts but the same unhelpful, overwhelming data.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- A checkout flow redesigned to \u201clook sleek\u201d but still forces users through five confusing steps.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
CONCLUSION<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Lipstick on a pig reminds us that real UX improvements start beneath the surface. Pretty pixels won\u2019t hide a broken experience for long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also known as: Mullet UI (closely related) \u2022 Polishing a turd (more blunt) \u2022 Window dressing<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lipstick on a pig describes the act of superficially improving the visual appearance of a product or feature, without addressing its deeper flaws or usability problems. This happens when designers apply a new coat of paint to a bad experience, hoping that users won\u2019t notice the core issues lurking underneath.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[19,21,20,18],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-style-over-substance","tag-design","tag-funny","tag-idiom","tag-lipstick-on-a-pig","entry","has-media","owp-thumbs-layout-horizontal","owp-btn-big","owp-tabs-layout-horizontal","has-no-thumbnails","has-product-nav"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hitchhikersguidetodesign.com\/book\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}