I can guarantee that visual design will not fix anyone's broken business, if someone can guarantee me that:
- Nobody cares how anything looks - any two things that are functionally equivalent are guaranteed to have equivalent conversions
- Looks have no impact on usability - anything that is functionally equivalent is guaranteed to be equally usable
- Usability does not translate to users - no correlation with whether a user has a preference for some look and feel with the number of such users you will get
In short, if visual design has no correlation with any part of the business, and, notably, people are as likely to pay, and will pay the same amount, for any two things that are functionally equivalent, then I can guarantee you that visual design will not fix anyone's broken business. If any of the above are not true - well, all bets are off.
Fair enough. If you can guarantee that adding to conversion, usability, usage, etc, can't fix a broken business, then I'll accept that visual design can't fix your broken business.
- Nobody cares how anything looks - any two things that are functionally equivalent are guaranteed to have equivalent conversions
- Looks have no impact on usability - anything that is functionally equivalent is guaranteed to be equally usable
- Usability does not translate to users - no correlation with whether a user has a preference for some look and feel with the number of such users you will get
In short, if visual design has no correlation with any part of the business, and, notably, people are as likely to pay, and will pay the same amount, for any two things that are functionally equivalent, then I can guarantee you that visual design will not fix anyone's broken business. If any of the above are not true - well, all bets are off.