How many times have you been irritated by slow online services?

Were you ever bothered by an app because you couldn’t get the job done?

Have you ever been annoyed by website buttons that just don’t work?

Let’s talk about website usability. We can intuitively tell if a site is user-friendly by how easily we can navigate around it. But what we aren’t always aware of, even as UX designers, is how we can complicate our designs and make them inefficient.

To create good UX designs, we need to also be aware of bad UX designs. After doing a brief review of some articles on this topic, here are some things to take note of when creating user interfaces for apps and websites.

1. DO NOT prioritize form over function

The beauty of a website or app depends on the aesthetic preferences of the user concerned. Even the cleanest, prettiest user interface becomes a useless interface when it doesn’t meet the customers’ needs. Good UX Research is mindful of the client’s expectations, vision, and objectives for the product. But if it fails to perform as it’s supposed to, users won’t hold it with much value.

2. DO NOT overload your users with information

It’s impractical to add too much to your site or app. You don’t want to make the mistake of adding anything beyond what’s necessary. These can include sign up instructions that ask for a lot of personal details–some that are even unrelated to the service, or may even be ways to breach users’ data privacy. Some examples of these are dropdown menus with too many options, articles with superfluous words, and a cluttered user interface.

3. DO NOT leave out important information

This sounds like the exact opposite of the previous point, but leaving out information is just as bad as overloading users with information. Leaving out important information such as how to properly check out a product, or how to sign up for a website can lead to a lot of dismay on the customer’s side.

Good UX research helps us identify what is essential for including on the user interface of any app or website. It’s the UI UX Design Agency’s job to conduct studies that touch on what is essential for the client. Some examples of overlooked UX include a company that offers online courses, but leaves out the price of the course up until the user has registered for it. Another example is that of a banking app that does not teach or show the steps for transferring money from one account to another, and leaves the user to call customer service just to navigate through the app.

4. DO NOT use up excessive screentime

A number of apps and sites use flashy animation and several loading pages to make the design of the site or app more attractive, but oftentimes this becomes unnecessary. One example is a website that loads a flash animation of a checkout receipt instead of just simply confirming that the payment has been received and possibly sending an email.

An excellent UX design agency is concerned with the amount of exposure customers have to blue light on their screens. Ideally, customers will want to spend as little time as possible on their screens, as prolonged stimulation from screen time has been correlated with issues such as depression, anxiety, vision problems, and social isolation.

5. DO NOT divert from the purpose of your app or website

At every step of the design process, the UX designer must be sure that the app or website they are creating remains coherent with its service. The UX research that takes place before designing, prototyping, and testing of the app or website can only be successful if the expectations of the participants are met. These expectations act as the basic guide around which the UX design agency must base all their decisions up to their final executions. Effective UX design agencies implement user journeys and user maps as a result of these studies, and thus act as a guide for the final product.

All designers have opportunities to learn and grow in their skills. Are you interested in improving your expertise? You can check out User Experience Researchers’ course offerings called “Build your Digital Transformation Strategy” and “Build your Digital Customer Experience Plan” for S$963 each.