The priority of a UX designer is to create usable products that help users complete their tasks with ease. This looks like a simple task to do, but it is a lot of work. It involves critical thinking and lots of processes. Though, experience over time makes it a bit easier.
So, as a junior UX designer with little or no experience, it is possible to misplace priorities, skip details, or get distracted by your assumptions. The harsh reality is that the cost of mistakes in UX design is high. It can result in users boycotting a brand or bad reviews of the product, affecting brand loyalty.
Research has also revealed that 88% of shoppers would not return to a website after a terrible user experience. User experience shapes the way users will accept a product.
Thus, your mistakes, though innocently made, can result in users rejecting the product and the brand. Sometimes, you might not even know you are making mistakes. This article will help you understand some common mistakes that break the user experience.
The priority of a UX designer is to create usable products that help users complete their tasks with ease. This looks like a simple task to do, but it is a lot of work. It involves critical thinking and lots of processes. Though, experience over time makes it a bit easier.
Common Mistakes Junior Designers Make
The first step in avoiding mistakes that lead to bad UX is to know what the errors are. This article highlights some mistakes you should avoid in your UX design.
Some of these mistakes are:
Prioritizing Interface over user experience
Poor user research
Ignoring usability testing
Jumping on trends
Waiting for Perfection
Let me explain these mistakes one after the other to have a proper understanding of how we can avoid them.
Prioritizing interface over user experience
A common misconception among junior designers, according to research by Invision, is prioritizing user interface over the user experience of products. The responses from the research revealed that most junior designers prioritize the visual design of products to create the impression that they have been doing a good job.
Why you shouldn’t prioritize interface over user experience
A good interface will not solve all of the users’ problems, but a good user experience in usability and functionality will.
Research by invision revealed that most junior designers are confused about what makes customers loyal to a product. They think a beautiful interface will make users loyal to the product. However, an attractive interface will not solve all of the users' problems.
Users use products for a specific purpose. It could be for buying tickets, learning purposes, or chatting with friends. They want to get things done, not just stare at a beautiful design.
Research has shown that increasing customer experience can raise a company’s KPI (key performance indicators) by 80%. Also, it is stated that 70% of shoppers will leave a site due to bad UX. This speaks much about the importance of user experience!
So, while it is good to have a beautiful interface, it must not be at the expense of having a good user experience with the usability and functionality of the product.
It is hard to rebuild the logic of user experience as it is to redesign the interface
Your interface might be awesome, but if the user experience is bad, you will have a lot to deal with. It is much easier to revamp the user interface than to rebuild the entire logic, flow, and functionality. The logic behind the functionality and usability of products requires much technical expertise.
You have lots of factors to take into consideration while building the logic of your design. Data from user research, designing wireframes, building prototypes for usability testing, etc, are some of the things that you will have to rebuild if the user experience is bad.
Thus, it is important to place priority on it, so that you won’t have to repeat the process.
Users use products for a specific purpose. It could be for buying tickets, learning purposes, or chatting with friends. They want to get things done, not just stare at a beautiful design.
A good product strikes a balance between creativity and functionality
Your product should strike the ideal balance of creativity and functionality. The mark of a good product is that it is attractive and it functions well.
The recent 2022 UX stats revealed that the user interface has a high customer conversion rate, but that rate will drop if users discover that the usability of the website or product is bad.
While the visual aspects of UX are essential, they should not take precedence over the features and functions of your website. Users want a beautiful product, but they also wish tasks to be simple to complete.
Poor user research
The foundation of a good user experience is understanding users' needs. You cannot develop a design based on your assumptions. It is like telling someone you understand their problem without even listening to them. You cannot understand users' pain points if you do not communicate with them.
User research aims to understand the user's needs, behavior, experience, and motivations. They use qualitative and quantitative methods for the problem-solving process.
In other words, UX Research is a collection of investigative techniques used to add context and insights. User research employs a wide range of methods, but at its heart is the user, how they think and behave — their needs and motivations.
UX research, in general, accomplishes this through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies.
The foundation of a good user experience is understanding users' needs. You cannot develop a design based on your assumptions. It is like telling someone you understand their problem without even listening to them. You cannot understand users' pain points if you do not communicate with them.
Ignoring Usability Testing
It is not enough to carry out user research for the product. It is equally important to create prototypes that real users will test. The danger in skipping prototype testing is that you may design a product that has nothing to do with the user problems.
No matter how beautiful the product may look on the surface, it may even appeal to you and your team. It is not a useful product if it does not meet the users' expectations.
Usability testing helps you know how usable your product is for users. Apart from solving users' problems, it is important that users can interact easily with your product.
Your product might genuinely provide a solution, but how easy is the process? Do users need to ask lots of questions before knowing how to use the product? To avoid this, you need to pay attention to usability testing.
Skipping this part will cost you a great deal.
You might need to start the user experience logic again, which can be a tricky thing to do. So, it is good UX practice to create enough prototypes for usability testing. Do not skip usability testing!
Related article: Common UX Portfolio Mistakes to Avoid as a Newbie
Jumping on trends
Junior designers often want to jump on trends, to prove they are not outdated. But trendy does not always mean helpful. Each product has its specific requirements, and the goal of your design is to meet those requirements.
It is good if a trend meets the purpose of the design, but forcing trends on your design to make it look appealing can result in bad UX.
Trends do not last forever. What is trending today might become outdated tomorrow. So, your primary aim is not to attract people to the product by going with trends. Your primary aim is to create a usable product that addresses their pain points.
Users can still abandon the product if it does not meet their specific needs, no matter how trendy the designs may look.
Waiting for Perfection
It is good to reach perfection. But this idea of perfection that you can create a product that will not ever need updates or adjustments now and then is an illusion.
Updates exist because of the imperfection of humans and the changing terrains of each sphere of existence. Ever heard the saying "Done beats perfect"? It does not mean you should be lazy, but it advises you to stop waiting for perfection that does not exist.
Even Big Tech makes updates to their products. There is yet to be a product that will not ever need updates in design and functionality. So, while you aim for excellence, do not delay the production process trying to figure out the additions.
You are good to go if you have conducted good user research usability testing. It is better to get the product in the user's hands and get feedback than to get stuck in the iteration process.
Final words
As a junior UX designer, you will make mistakes. It does not mean you are not a good designer. The errors will help you learn better.
However, you can minimize the errors if you know how to avoid them. Learning in a UX Bootcamp can help you avoid most of these mistakes. Sign up for GoCreate USA Bootcamp today and learn from experts how to navigate UX design with minimal errors.