With the surge of engaging and cool new design options we have seen millions of apps and websites receive a makeover. This has also seen a lot of poor design choices that hampers consumers to connect with brands. From basic aesthetics to weak content, poor navigation, and unknown errors, there are many aspects of design that can be improved.
Below, you’ll find the top ten common web application design mistakes and how to keep them from hurting your customer overall engagement.
1. Forget to use responsive design
Over 40 percent of searches are done on mobiles, having a website that can display properly on those devices is of importance for any businesses. Most of the websites these days have been created with responsive web design. Google introduced a search update that penalizes the non-responsive sites in mobile searches, this will be a major problem if we don’t focus.
2. Disordered content layout
Content on the application is what drives the customer to it. The structure of the content makes it a success or a failure. Users don’t have time to read through the whole page, they just scan the necessary points like headings, subheadings, bullets, keywords, etc. we should highlight the important content and links for the user to click while scanning through the page.
- Don’t put unnecessary content which clutters the page.
- Create enough white space between your text and images by using margins.
Update and be consistent. The purpose of updating is to add new content or new features and correct past mistakes.
3. Don’t forget about the actual design elements
Have consistent design elements all through the application.
Consider the design elements of the platform (Android / iOS) and create the application accordingly. Make sure the photos, videos, and banners are supporting the content and balance the layout.
Icons and images support the text and help the user to scan through the content easily, use of low-resolution icons and images will kill the overall aesthetics of the application. Make sure the use of icons and images are supporting the content and making the overall experience great.
You can get high-resolution images for free here (https://unsplash.com/)
4. Take count of the Loading-Time
While it’s good to have elegant JavaScript animations, to capture the attention of customers but it isn’t good if it affects the performance.
Less is more is the rule in web design. A page with half a dozen of images cluttered with different icons and lack of content hierarchy leads to bad design.
The goal of good design is to provide guidance, focus, and a content hierarchy.
5. Not a friendly Screen Resolution.
I’m sure that you must have landed on the Apps/sites where we have horizontal scroll. In modern web design, it’s a big no. As good designers, we should develop a site that fits all the screen sizes. 1024x768 pixels is the current optimized layout for websites.
However, it’s not easy to build one size fits all solution depending on the evolution of the latest screen resolution but we can get a rough idea about commonly used screen resolutions from the following sites:
- Google Analytics: Provides you the information on which platforms most of your customers are and the most used resolution. This date helps immensely in revamping the website. For Example Myntra has seen an opportunity in catering only to the Mobile customers and abandoned the Web App, which quiet helped them to reach millions of downloads, however later this year they are back with the Web App.
- W3 Schools Browser Stats: You can find a list of the popular browser used by netizens and sort them according to popularity. There are other interesting and important statistics too.
6. Missing Call to Action
After landing on the site, we should drive the customer with the right and required content to help solve his problem. Once he spends good enough time it has to be easy for the customer to reach us.
It’s not necessary to get creative with a call to action wording. Keep it simple and use the text which user is familiar with, like
- Contact us
- Add to cart
- Shop now
- Sign up
7. Not considering Target Audience
All through the app, the TG is the most important aspect as you build everything for that group, in the same way, you should be consistent with creating a website which caters to the same target group. Identify you TG and use appropriate colors, fonts & layout that substantiate the brand. Narrow you TG to hit the right group to increase sales.
8. Placing Ads in the wrong place
Advertising is the core for any brand to generate revenue, but if it’s cluttering the App and making users life uncomfortable, you should reconsider your strategy of ad placements.
- Don’t consider full-screen size ads where the close button is invisible.
- Never cover the content with the ad placement, it’ll kill the purpose of the app.
9. Complicated Signup/Registration Forms.
How much information is necessary from the user to register and if you need a whole lot of the information collect it at different stages of the application that way the user is not worried about seeing the registration form.
10. Promote Social Engagement
Connect with your customers personally, that enhances the brand identity and strengthen the relationship.
- Posting the blogs in social media can get higher rankings on Google.
- Freebies that encourages the customer to use the App
