5 UX design mistakes you’re probably making. With Solutions.

Have you ever pushed a door that needed to be pulled? Or the other way round? I bet you have, at some point of your life.

Well, did you know that there’s a name for these frustrating pieces of design? They are called the Norman door. Coined by Don Norman, in his book The Design of Everyday Things, a Norman door is a badly designed door that confuses a user on whether to pull or push.

According to Don Norman, when the user is totally clueless as to whether the door needs to be pulled or pushed, or slid left or right, then such doors are design mistakes. More specifically, UX mistakes.

Well, in the world of web designing, UX mistakes are more common than you think. Even seasoned designers and experienced teams fall prey to some of these mistakes.

Here are 5 UX design mistakes to avoid as a UX designer

1. Not defining your target audience

UX with no user research is not UX. One of the most common mistakes designers commit is they design for themselves. The most profound mistake you can make as a designer is assuming that others will like the same design as you do. It is easy to have inflated egos in the creative field.

You are creating for your target user. You have to keep reminding yourself of this at every step of the design process. And to create a positive experience for the user, you have to know the user. Research on your target audience’s demographics, interests, behavior and create user personas and buyer journeys.

User personas and buyer journeys help you map your potential user’s actions and helps you understand the experience design better. They help you make an intuitive design.

2. Using dummy text

Content is king. And will continue to be. Everything you design, create and build ultimately comes down to content consumption. Design and content together form the user experience.

Most designers continue to use the default “lorem ipsum” to design templates. This is understandable since it saves time and helps you complete your design quickly. But design without real content will never give you a clear picture of the experience you seek to provide. It looks half cooked and flat. And it lacks relatability.

Instead, use real content based on your research about the product and its target users. You don’t have to have the perfect copy. But you should not have lifeless placeholder text either. Your content team can later refine the content but have something meaningful, to begin with. That’s the beauty of designing experiences. And it can only come from research and analysis.

3. Not trying out different layouts

Again, confidence and bloated egos are a part and parcel of the creative field. It is very easy to get attached to your design and not look for further improvements or not consider the target user perspective. This is where designers falter.

A good user experience designer should always consider testing out multiple layouts. Consider A/B testing for different versions of your design. Based on the usability, ease of navigation and overall usability, you could enhance the layout that performed best. On the other hand, having a single layout gives you no options for improvement. Ditch the rigidity and embrace options and feedback.

4. Not having an information architecture in place

Another grave mistake many user experience designers make is to start the design process without organizing the information architecture. Big mistake!

You can never have a great UX design in place without a solid information architecture process. Information architecture helps you organize information in a clear and logical way. It helps users navigate complex sets of information.

Information architecture is at the intersection of users, content, and context. It lets you define the user flow which in turn helps you define the design flow. Without organizing your information architecture, your design will have limited usability and end of as a frustrating user experience. When you don’t have a map in your mind while designing, you cannot expect the users to know their way on your product either.

5. Not testing for all devices

In this day and age, if your website is not responsive, it is as bad as not having a website at all. One of the most common things UX designers miss out is testing out their designs on different devices.

Again, it all boils down to knowing your target users and where they are present. The user interaction is not the same on all devices. The way users will interact with your application on a desktop is vastly different from how they will interact with the same application on a tablet. So, always make it a point to perform usability testing of your design on multiple devices before giving it a final go. A well-tested application goes a long way in providing positive user experience.  

Have questions on UI and UX design? Deamscape Media specializes in designing user interfaces and user experience for web and mobile. Talk to us!