Top UI/UX Mistakes to Avoid

UX is often dubbed as an effective way of connecting prospective users to a business — all the touchpoints from marketing, sales, development to distribution channels. In today’s highly competitive business scenario, “user experience” provides the way for relevant and meaningful interaction with an end-user.

It is important to understand everything from the overall look to its response when users interact with it and how it aligns into people’s everyday lives. Similarly, there are success stories about UX connecting a consumer to a business — all the touchpoints from marketing to product development. It is essential to partner with a professional UI/UX design company to ensure that you avoid roadblocks associated during the design process.

UI/UX Mistake 1

Creativity is placed above usability

Many UI/UX designers fail to strike a balance between usability and creativity. Very often in the bid to satisfy creativity, designers compromise on critical features. Designers often fail to strike a balance between creativity and usability. While aesthetic elements are essential with creative graphics, intuitive animations and high-resolution images, functionality is also important. Users want easy-to-navigate sites.

Similarly, your website should not solely focus on functionality to the point of compromising on creativity. After all, your site needs to appeal to users and grab their attention. Sites need to strike a balance, or else users will search elsewhere.

UI/UX Mistake 2

Not Waking to the Importance of UX Writing

Ever heard of UX writers? No. Well, you are on the path of making the most common mistake. Content is the essential aspect of the website, forming the basis of user experience. It is not just about dumping design with Lorem Ipsum hoping that the final content will later replace this content.

Sadly, content is often an afterthought ignoring the need for a dedicated wordsmith in the design team to ensure that the product or web application is designed with a clear and consistent content strategy in mind.

Whether it is CTA buttons, error messages or any text on the user interface, it’s important to note that UX writers are an integral part of the design team, conducting user research to establish the soul of the brand.

UI/UX Mistake 3

Not going device agnostic

It was about going online in the early nineties. Later it was about the mobile-first approach. UI/UX designers need to build device-agnostic experiences. When it comes to immersive user experience, consumers require the much-needed freedom to choose and flexibility to switch between devices such as a smartphone to laptop to voice interaction.

Device agnostic design takes into account the entire user journey focusing on several touch points such as (smartphone, wearable, tablet, smartwatch and more). If a UX designer fails to understand different touchpoints right from customer’s interest in social media ad to buy a product, researching features on smartphone, switching to laptop for seamless payment to actually downloading an app to check the progress of your order on your smartphone, there is no chance of success.

Today’s savvy customers need consistent experience throughout the buying process. Designers must learn consumer expectations to change their approach to UX design.

UI/UX Mistake 4

Unappealing CTA

CTAs have the power to enhance conversion ratios dramatically. If a designer ignores the power of CTA, disaster awaits. All elements right from color to copy of CTA should have the power to attract user attention.

• Color: The color of the CTA button should stand out from the background and grab a user’s attention.
• Language: It should create a moment of urgency, so always use the first person voice, active verbs and timing words.
• Design: Simplicity is the key to success. Keep the design appealing, but simple.
• Location: A CTA button should be exactly next to the proposal as the logical next step in the journey.
• Size: Size should be prominent, however, should not be overwhelming. CTA should be big enough to stand tall, but small enough to be appealing and inviting.
• Length: Keep the text length concise and compelling.

It goes beyond doubt that the choice of color, design and copy should be driven by the preferences and demands of your audiences. It is important to understand the purchase behavior and psychology to find the perfect amalgamation of colors, shapes and fonts and consistently test the changes number of times before coming up with the most preferred version of the CTA version.

UI/UX Mistake 4

Designing for search engine bots and not people

Online world is highly competitive and it is not surprising that search engine rankings hold the key to success. Google and several other search engines like Bing work to make the search experience user friendly. To optimize user experience, search engines have established a set of guidelines for the website to follow. In this race to the top of search engine rankings, both designers and developers make Google bots the main priority and not user experience.

In the era of ever-increasing online competition, it is no surprise that Site owners are fanatically obsessed with keywords and rankings. If a designer makes the critical mistake of overlooking people and focuses on search engine bots, it is crucial to design websites and create content for humans first and search engines second.

UI/UX Mistake 5

Trying to reinvent the wheel

With several web applications available in the app world, it is important to be innovative. Apps strive to provide different types of interactions and it is essential to understand the communication in order to interact with the app. However, designers often get carried away in their attempt to reinvent the wheel.

Because it seems like a cardinal sin for designers to follow something like everyone else. In the process of creativity, users have to often navigate unfamiliar interfaces with different interactions which can be time-consuming. The user simply does not have the time to learn every new interaction. So designers should try to reinvent the wheel only when necessary.

Finally

UI/UX designer aims to create engaging user experiences, help site visitors accomplish tasks, and increase conversions. In the process, they often focus only on aesthetics, take the way that is easy to follow, and use the most common design patterns and trends. Common UX mistakes are made because either trends or common design patterns are blindly emulated.