UX Design Matters
“Many developers have never met a UX designer in person. They have no idea what UX designers do and why.”
User experience (UX) refers to a person’s emotions and attitudes about using
a particular product, system or service.
Why do we need a UX design process at all? Why do UX designers exist? To find out more, let’s dig deep. Nothing best describes the role of a UX designer than examples of interfaces of UX failures. This article highlights different mistakes found in UX and user interface (UI) design, from the simplest to the most complex.
1. Don’t Confuse the User
It is so easy for designers to forget to think like a user when designing something. Designers forget that stuff which may seem obvious to them may not actually be obvious for users. Here are examples of some icons which only designers would know about, but the end user would have no clue about:
A designer should empathize with the end user and put themselves in the end users shoes. All the content should be easy and clear to understand. End users should not be spending time to guess what the designer product or service is. A best practice is to follow Steve Krug’s advice and “Don’t make users think”.
2. Localization Matters
Designers need to be aware whether a product or service should be translated. They need to build layouts properly with attention to avoid simple mistakes that could cost time and money, and ultimately a company’s reputation. The screen below is a perfect example illustrating the importance of localizing the content to the market. In the screenshot, while the words ‘Learn More’ make sense in the English version. But when that phrase is directly translated into Russian, the exact words do not fit a button and the remaining part translate as “Learn Pain” and make no sense.
3. Keep Confidentiality
Did you know that when you edit your post on Facebook, all your edit history is visible by anyone who can see your post? When a user takes a decision to edit, this means that the original version was not perfect for some reason. Maybe there was a typo or maybe the person wrote something that could have been misunderstood by the audience. Whatever the case, edits should only be visible to anyone who can see the comment (or has been given permission to do so).
4. Keep Data
Data is the most valuable asset that anyone can possess. Websites need to be designed so that a user’s data is not lost if a page crashes — when the user logs in again, the exact same details of where they left should still be available. So, for example, if a user wants to order a pizza online, the order page should not time out while the user is busy paying for the pizza on another tab. It is what happened to me yesterday. Don’t worry, I finally got my pizza :)
5. Make Things Obvious
Everything was ok with a pizza. With interface — it was not. When it comes to interfaces, all necessary functions should be easily accessible. In this website payment function is hidden deep in the interface.
Actually, the payment opens immediately when an order is confirmed.
If you accidentally close payment tab or want to add something to the order you will be forced to find payment function on the website. Sympathetic operator (who calls you after to confirm address) would help you to find it. Here is what the operator suggests:
- please find navigation
- find there “shipping and payment” item
- scroll page to the bottom
- find there a pink button
You need to make a lot of actions to find the necessary link. Don’t try to complete these steps with a mobile phone!
6. Details Matters
This is a screenshot from the price page from one of a well-known airline company that experienced issues where the currency was not displayed:
We can see the cheapest ticket costs 178.70, but what’s the currency?
178.70 RMB, 178.70 USD? The worst case scenario could be that the user pays thinking it is 178.70 RMB, but they end up paying 178.70 USD!
Here should be given credit for the company. Now currency is visible and automatically adjusts according to the selected language.
7. Give Appropriate Info
Another error from a UX perspective is designing a website to sell products and services but with no available dates for purchase or delivery. Take for example the website from the same well-known airline company (as shown below). You can see that available directions are black and unavailable are grey.
It seems that you can fly to Morocco. But there are no flights available in any month. So this direction isn’t actual. Morocco should not have been highlighted as an accessible one. As a customer, it is worst experience possible when you want to book an airline ticket but cannot select the destination or the dates of travel.
Imagine if users are constantly faced with such errors. It causes irritation and discomfort. If a person has to work every day with a poorly designed interface, it causes constant frustration. People become nervous, they don’t like their work. Sometimes people can feel incompetent.
Sometimes it happens that one mistake admitted in interaction with badly designed interface affects the masses of people.
8. Let Undo Actions
On January 13, 2018, at 8 am Hawaiian Islands’ 1.5 million residents received the following emergency alert:
Hawaii was turned in panic.
- Some people rushed back to their homes by cars. At the same time, some drivers took shelter inside tunnels believing that could protect them from an explosion. There were chaotic scenes everywhere with traffic coming to a standstill.
- 32 football matches for children were canceled
- Some tourist buses helped take people to a mountain bunker
- Passengers destined to fly out of Honolulu airport were sent to hide in a cellar. People called family members to say goodbye.
In fact, there wasn’t any natural disaster on the way, and the cause of the alert was a genuine mistake relating to a confusing interface. An employee selected the wrong item from the list containing similar links, as shown in this screenshot:
However, there was a second window where it was necessary to confirm the previous selection. An employee reflexively confirmed it. In described system was no option to cancel the running process. You know what happened then. The emergency alert was canceled just within 38 minutes.
How can one person’s accidental mistake cause such a serious error and nation-wide panic? Well-known UX expert Don Norman seems to know the answer: “We can’t blame a person but we must fix the system!”
The bottom line? A poorly designed interface results in people who suffer trying to use products while a business risking revenue and reputation. However, having a good UX design can prevent/resolve such issues.
Design is not only about pixels. Please remember that design can influence on a large scale in a good and bad way. Let’s influence in
a good way!