5 deadly mistakes UX designers make (and how to fix them)

“Your website is by you, not for you,” Michael Chibuzor

…It’s for your audience. Every decision must be in their interest, not yours. You’re just the caretaker. Never forget that!

On one hand, if your site users are happy, they’ll stick around and take the right action step (e.g., opt-in to your list, purchase your product).

On the other hand, if they’re not satisfied with your site layout, navigational menu bar, or the general flow of your content, then you know that you’re building your business on thorns – it’ll soon be choked.

UX or user experience is an all-important aspect of a website design that you have to be passionate about.

Because if the user is not satisfied, it doesn’t matter how much powerful your sermon is, they’ll not listen to you.

Making tiny changes could yield a significant growth in your sales and overall website performance. According to MindTouch, “ESPN.com’s revenue jumped 35% after they listened to their community and incorporated suggestions into their homepage redesign.”

Giving a listening ear to your audience is the quickest way to deliver immense value in your business. However, making the 5 deadly UX mistakes that are listed below will lower your user experience and produce meager sales.

The good news is that you can fix these mistakes UX designers make, too. I provide you guidelines to get your UX properly sorted out. Let’s go:

UX mistake #1: Great design experience, wrong product

This is the first UX mistakes that designers make.

There are products that don’t seem to offer any real benefit to the user. At the surface, they have great designs (such as colorful kits, book covers), which provides easy avenue for users to make purchase decisions.

But as you delve deeper into the content of the product, you get disappointed. Mind you, this temporal perceived value that caused the user to opt-in and download the product or purchase it is not enough.

The solution to this is actually simple. Stop creating products that are not relevant or useful to your audience. Sure, you can deceive people with great design, but that would only last for some time.

First, make sure that you’re building the right product that offer genuine value to your users. Second, continually perfect the experience for users. That’s how to launch a MVP (minimal viable product) that sells like hot cake.

UX mistake #2: Active link colors not changing

This is one of the UX design mistakes that seems to always resurface. Did you know that if users don’t know where they’re, it would be difficult for them to choose where to go next?

Links are important components of a website. In the past, blue was the most popular color for links. But as time goes by, other colors replaced it.

And truly, there is no rule on what the color of your links should be in today’s cutting-edge technology age.

However, you should change the color of your active links. When your links are clicked, they shouldn’t retain the same color of blue (or any other color you’ve used for the link). It should change to orange or maroon.

At least, when an active link has a different color from inactive links, the user can differentiate and identify where they currently are on a particular web page. And how to move forward.

UX mistake #3: Non scannable paragraph

A wall of text confuses users. It’s one of the greatest usability killers.

Come on, if this post was not properly formatted, giving spaces in-between sentences and paragraphs, you wouldn’t have read thus far.

Don’t make your content hard and painful to read. Non scannable texts will worsen the situation for users. And if they don’t read it, they’ll not share it.

Learn to write for the web, not for print. Both platforms have their own guidelines. Online readers want to get specific answers quickly. They might decide to scan your content, which is fine. They must not read everything… save their time.

Quick fix: When writing for users on the web, write in short sentences. Use subheads, highlight important keywords, lay out your points in bulleted lists, and use a simple writing style. Here’s a perfect example:

UX mistake #4: Lack of adequate white space

White space is wasted space, right?

Wrong.

Don’t take this lightly. But rather, make use of whitespace in all your designs. It’ll improve user experience and give users a reason to stay. But if you ignore it, you’re sending a clear signal to your target audience that you can’t be trusted.

Don’t confuse “white space” with using white background. They’re not the same thing. White space simply means a negative space (or blank space) on your page that gives clarity to your page elements. It could be any color (e.g., red, blue).

Although the image below has an orange background, but it’s equally a white space because it’s not in competition with the focus content. It’s an empty space.

Here’s what Treehouse says about white space…

“A lot of elements, images, colors and different shapes in a page can make your site look more like an infomercial and cause your readers leave because they’re uncomfortable.”

White space is so important. Because it allows you to focus on what’s important on your page, instead of creating confusion for your users. Google uses a lot of white spaces on their homepage, to direct searchers onto the search.

Mind you, Google is not alone. Starbucks and Apple are big advocates of the white space in their designs. Take a look:

UX mistake #5: Inconsistency in the design flow

When it comes to web design, you need to inspire your site users.

You’ve got to understand that when people come to your site, your site layout and overall design is making a statement. Inconsistency in the flow of your individual pages can cause a problem for users.

I could still recall how disappointed I was when I visited a particular small business website.

I loved the homepage and the about page, but when I clicked on the “services” page, I saw an entirely different design. The branding was not in sync.

At first, I got confused. Because I thought that I had mistakenly clicked through to another site. But when I cross-checked on the browser’s address bar, I discovered that I was still there.

The site design was not consistent.

Don’t ever make this mistake. And if you already have, it’s high time you make a U-turn and put things in order.

As much as possible, make sure that your pages have consistent navigational menu bar, and branding. Your header (if any) should have the same design, color, and size.

Conclusion

The whole web design UX can be confusing if you don’t understand your audience and what they really want from your site.

It would be needful at this point to conduct a market research to collect viable data about your audience.

The user insights are usually important when creating value proposition and optimizing for mobile devices.

Which other UX mistake do you see designing make that if you have the opportunity will fix it?