6 Most Common UX Mistakes and Why You Should Avoid Them

If you’re working on reducing the bounce rate and boosting the conversions on your website, making sure your UX Design is solid could help to engage with your target audience and get those impressions up.

Understanding what keeps users on your website could be your solution to reduced traffic and insufficient clicks. Although the content, both written and visual, keeps viewers engaged; a poorly designed website is an instant turn-off for new (and returning) viewers. You might need to rethink your user experience (UX) paths, maybe a fresh website design could do the trick!

What is UX Design?

UX is a common term used in the computing and design world that simply refers to a users experience on a platform. Whether it’s an app or a fully structured website, finding ways to engage with your users is what keeps your online efforts alive.

UX relates greatly to the way we perceive colours, shapes, user journeys, content layout and visual aid on a site. We all know how hard it is to please people, but finding the right balance to create meaningful interactions could give your website the power it needs to convert viewers into customers.

This human-computer interaction can be evaluated, based on the following points;

  • Is your website valuable? Do your viewers appreciate your site’s content?
  • Is your website useable? Do your users have a clear path to follow?
  • Is your website findable? Do your viewers have access to your site?
  • Is your website credible? Does your audience gain the right information from your site?
  • Is your website desirable? Does the public eagerly crave your content?
  • Is your website accessible? Do your users require additional tools to enter your site?
  • Is your website useful? Do your followers rely on your content?

Answering these questions might help you understand the value of UX design, but ultimately, if you’re not too sure what your website’s issues are, experts like the crew at 4Sight could help narrow down your issues and point you in the right direction.

But before we get to that stage, how about learning more about UX design before we fix all the missteps up for you? Here are 6 common UX mistakes that you should definitely avoid:

Finding the balance between aesthetics and functionality

Sure, sounds easy right? Wrong! Finding the balance between beauty and performance is the age-old debate that many industries face, with designers as the biggest bearers of the burden.

Creativity is the energy that fuels all creators, especially designers – so their instinct to go all out on design and aesthetics often takes precedence over functionality. Now, while their newly designed websites may look absolutely smashing, do they perform in the desired manner? Do they convert clients?

Finding the balance between clear user journey paths, easily navigated menu bars, a solid flow between pages and section as well as a creative view will help your website stand out from the crowd and hopefully achieve optimum brand loyalty.

Knowing which trends to follow and which to avoid

We all know that trends are a great source of traffic to any given platform. The buzz and excitement of following a trend could help you gain new viewers if you’re on-trend at the specific time that they’re well… trending. But can you be sure that this trend will stick?

UX design and trends do work hand in hand, but there’s also the question of sustainability in such ‘improvements’. If you think that the trend you’ve jumped on board with will die out in a few months, it’s probably not too wise to rebrand, reshuffle and rethink your entire website based on a concept that is not so evergreen.

There are so many UX improvements that a design team could implement without falling victim to a trend that may or may not die out in the near future. Always be sure to weigh out the risks and the benefits in following trends – perhaps you could even leave these catchy nuances for your social media platforms, where change and variety are encouraged.

Really, how responsive is your website?

It’s clear to say that hosting a responsive website is by no means a trend. This is a necessity that all UX design teams should follow – it is the fundamental priority that, if ignored, could drive so much potential away from your website.

Responsive web design gives you website the ability and possibility to interact with viewers, monitor their user journeys and develop according to the public’s expectation and growth. It’s quite a magical part of digital production and if analysed correctly, could result in the full potential of your site.

Making use of optimal UX functionality across a myriad of devices gives you and your company the cutting edge creativity to appeal to a larger audience. Make sure your website is seamlessly translated on tablet and mobile devices, Android and Apple alike.

Human vs Robot – who takes priority?

This is the million-dollar question of the digital age. Should we as creators, designers, content writers, be targeting our brand’s image to best suit the humans that will ultimately keep our brands alive or should we be more focused on appealing to the robots that help push our brand higher up on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page)?

It’s not a clear cut debate. In fact, finding the middle ground could be the hardest part of a UX designer’s job. One thing that UX gurus are crystal clear on is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and its benefit to a website.

Preparing paths, creating inbound links, making use of third party links and other affiliate content should all be part of the set up for a new website. But it’s also common practice to design for humans first and robots second. For the time being, we still take priority.

Content – is it still king?

Oh boy, you bet it is! When we speak of content, we often think of the written copy that fills the pages of our websites – but we’re missing such an important aspect of content creation. What about the imagery?

While it’s super important to ensure that all your written material is relevant, free of any errors, up-to-date and organised in a consistent and traceable fashion, all these aspects can relate to the aesthetics of the pages on your site too.

It’s quite detrimental to publish a blog, for example, with imagery that does not quite fit the topic. A wrong image could stray those all-important users to a competitor. Their view of your content is that it is not credible or reliable. This also relates to the placement of imagery on a website or platform; having half your image cropped, simply due to poos UX design could destroy your reputation.

Not everyone is a designer, and more importantly, not everyone is a UX designer

With platforms and communities like Fiverr, every ‘designer’ under the sun can promote their supposed portfolio and credentials across the internet. Some candidates on these types of communities are 100% legitimate, but what about those who ‘say’ they can do it, but actually can’t?

You’re never quite sure what you’re getting with randomly chosen UX designers. Finding a trusted professional who can gauge your needs and translate them into the concept and vision you expected requires some dedicated research and a few extra euro added to the invoice at the end of the month.

An inexperienced UX designer might have a moment of glory, but if you’re working on a bi hot-shot website, you might want to talk to the experienced professionals to make sure the job is done within your standards.

If you’re hoping for a website that will captivate the crowds, engage with your viewers and interact seamlessly with the Google bots out there, you might want to consider getting in touch with the experts at 4Sight. Our team of experienced UX designers will find a way to bring your vision to life, retain your old viewers and target new ones with the top-level SEO tactics on the market.