Have you ever had to unsuccessfully press the call button on the mobile version of the site? Or have you tried (and failed) to open a tiny link? Have you ever wondered what happens after you interact with an element? Or, even worse, what to do next on the site?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you are facing a UX error. They are far more common than most developers think. Why? Perhaps it's a lack of knowledge, conceit, or laziness. Whatever it is, the main thing is to learn how to avoid such mistakes.
Because poor UX leads to fewer conversions. Undeniable.
What is UX?
User experience defines the way a user interacts with the your website and experiences your system, product, or service. Put simply, user experience refers to the perspective of user on ease of use, utility and efficiency that your website offers.
If you're reading this article, chances are good that you already know: UX means user experience. According to Google Trends, interest in user experience has grown steadily in recent years.
Knowing that you should optimise your user experience is one thing. It is quite different to understand how you should optimise it.
The first step is learning the key UX principles:
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Use context - It is often easier to think of a custom adventure as a storybook. If you open most of the books to a random page and select a word, there is a lot more context for it on that page. You will most likely see the book title, chapter title, page number, and the selected word will be contextually linked to the sentence, paragraph, and page. Make sure users are contextually aware of where they are on their journey.
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Be more human - more accessible, more honest, and more understandable. Prefer human interaction over machine interaction.
- Be easily found - create a powerful information footprint. Provide directional signs.
- Keep it simple - reduce the user's cognitive workload where possible. Be consistent and clear, and create a strong visual hierarchy.
- Keep it simple - establish a strong signal-to-noise ratio. Avoid distractions, jargon, and long loading times.
Leo Frishberg of Phase II describes three basic principles of UX, using terminology introduced by a Roman engineer who lived in the 1st century BC:
“The basis of all great projects goes back to Vitruvius, the Roman engineer, who defined three basic principles for conducting an architectural project:
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Venustas (Beauty, or admiration)
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Firmitas (Steadiness, or rationality)
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Utilitas (Usefulness, or value)
We can easily map these three principles to the BTU model - Business (Product), Technology (Intelligence), User (Admiration), which is very common now. Once you address each of these areas, you will reach the level at which you will need to spend a minimum of resources to achieve maximum results. World-class UX design is based on and synonymous with world-class system design — as long as the system encompasses both the core of the technology and the people who benefit from it. ”
3 Biggest UX Design Problems
Designing UX comes with its own set of problems that a designer might face. Here's the list of top 3 UX design problems and its solution.
1. Designing for yourself
This error is contrary to the principle of conducting research. Too often, you design for yourself. Just like you need to have a list of your audience's needs, you need to design the user experience your audience wants. Always design for those who actually use your site. Chances are good that people don't want or need the same things that you do.
Read: How to hire a UI/UX designer for web application development?
Here's how Jerry Kao from UXPin explains the problem:
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“We are all to blame for this in some way. When you work in a creative field, you always form your point of view and always try to pass facts through your own experiences.
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To be a successful developer, you need to isolate design from the ego. Your goal is not to prove anything with your project, but to help the user by creating a memorable experience.
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Of course, it's not always easy to separate your wants from the needs of your users. Developers feel almost a parental sense of responsibility towards their creations, but you should feel a responsibility towards users, not towards your own egos. "
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Without usability tests and other forms of traditional research, you're wasting money. At best, you will be making assumptions about your UX. Fairhead Creative's Adam Fairhead explains it this way:
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“iPhone users experienced keyboard issues right after the release of iOS7. Many of them were frustrated by the small size of the space bar and the difficulty of using it.
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Apple later corrected this in later versions of iOS. But the damage has already been done. Since Apple is a very secretive company, it is not really known if they conduct usability tests. But this is a good example of why usability tests are so important. "
Solution:
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Perform quantitative analysis to identify problem areas. At what point do users leave? Where do they spend more time? What pages do they click "back" on?
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Conduct a qualitative analysis to determine why. Why are users leaving? Why do they stop at certain pages? Why do they need a back button?
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Prioritise issues based on impact and ease of fix. Will testing be required (for example, improving search results) or can problems be fixed immediately (for example, making the button more contrasty)?
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Create hypotheses for the problems to be tested and start testing.
2. Mastery at the expense of clarity
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This error is contrary to the principle of clarity.
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You want your website to be beautiful and innovative. Unfortunately, this is not always good for conversions. Why? Many developers (and marketers) sacrifice clarity for originality.
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As Adam Fairhead of Fairhead Creative argues, clarity should be prioritised over creativity:
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“Creativity is very good. But when you're creative for creativity's sake, you run the risk of confusing your users instead of guiding them.
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The radial navigation idea you wanted to apply to that marketing site?
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It can be very creative. But users won't understand. "
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The difference between expectations and reality is great. Your users click on a button, expecting one thing, but they get something else entirely. They expect the icon to do X, but it does Y.
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Clarity removes this difference.
Solution:
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Take an objective look at your site and identify what is unclear.
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When doing user testing, ask users to complete key tasks in your conversion area (login, find product X, add product X to cart) Which path are they taking? How different is it from the path you have outlined? Why?
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Where do users hesitate? This indicates that there may be problems with clarity. There is a certain comfort in knowing exactly what will happen when certain actions are taken. If users are unsure, they are likely to hesitate.
3. Assuming the same rules apply on mobile devices
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This error is contrary to the principle of relevance.
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Undoubtedly, media consumption on mobile devices is on the rise right now:
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You don't need a separate article on how mobile traffic functions differently from desktop traffic, or that long forms are a bad idea. Or that small links/buttons are killing conversions.
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There are, however, a few things that web design specialists from Sydney want you to know about mobile devices:
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Cross-platform testing is mandatory. Make sure your site works correctly and loads quickly on all devices. You may not have an Android OS device, but you can be sure that some of your users have such devices. Quality assurance is essential.
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Test the PC and mobile versions separately. Your mobile UX and desktop UX are completely different. Therefore, they need to be tested in different ways.
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The fewer clicks you require from users, the better. Why lead users through multiple windows (like an onboarding stream) when you can put it all together?
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It's also important to pay attention to the legibility of text for mobile versions. Readability issues can occur on small devices. Bojan Janjanin of Yesterdayishere explains why small fonts can sabotage your mobile UX:
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“Small print can look good on your display, and you won't have difficulty reading it, but always remember that you are not your user. Invest in usability testing to see if your real users are happy with the design on all major device types: PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
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Testing the mobile version requires users to visit your website in daylight. Your real customers don't always have ideal viewing conditions. If you've ever read something on a mobile device on a sunny day, you probably know how difficult it can be. "
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Thus, UX on mobile is different from UX on PC. Even UX on iPhone may be different from your UX on Android. Don't assume that research and testing can be generalised to all devices.
Solution:
Study the user experience for each device separately. This means separate research, separate analysis, separate decisions, separate prioritisation, separate tests, etc.
Read: Top 5 User Experience Trends in Web Application Design
Focus on optimising UX for each device. Your goal is to create the most relevant experience for each device. This means that the incentive to act can change, the checkout process can change, and so on.
Quality assurance is a key feature. Test your UX on all devices. Where are the mistakes? Is the page loading slowly? Are the images disappearing? Are they too big? Is the call to action visible?
Conclusion
While the increasing interest in UX is generally positive, it also increases the likelihood of errors. Understanding the basic principles of UX will help you with analysis and optimisation. And we hope that our article will help you to avoid the most common mistakes.