Product Design | UX Design | User Experience

Product Design and The Hidden Cost of Inconsistency

How to lose new users and customers, fast!

Creating ‘false’ interactions only leads to confusion and mistrust

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Earlier this week, I stumbled across a UX faux pas. You can see it in the GIF above. If you’re not sure what you’re looking at; Imagine clicking an element in an app or a website. It’s c𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑙𝑦 interactive, because it’s reacting to your mouse movements. You’re waiting for something to happen, a change or visual feedback, but instead you get nothing — crickets.

Unfortunately, this is too common. And what makes it worse is that I found this on an agency’s website; an agency that specializes in UX design.

But Nathan, this is OK. You’re being too sensitive. What’s the problem with a little animation? What’s wrong with this false interaction? What’s wrong is that dents the user’s confidence. It makes them question what’s happening.

“𝐴𝑚 𝐼 𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 properly?”

“𝐼𝑠 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑛?”

“Will the rest of the product/service be like this?”

The problem with false or decorative interactions

The problem with false or decorative interactions is that they create confusion. Or to put it another way, they make users doubt. If this pattern is repeated throughout the website or app, confusion can quickly lead to frustration and, finally, a complete loss of trust. And we all know how that ends: “𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒃𝒚𝒆!”

In the product world, trust is hard-earned. Getting new users is hard! As designers and product owners, it’s our job to make every interaction intuitive, consistent, and meaningful. When we fail, we risk damaging the user’s experience, their trust in our product or worse still, our brand.

The three C’s of good UX design

Consistency is one of the easiest ways to build trust in a product. A 𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘 of consistency is one of the quickest ways to lose that trust. Unfortunately, it’s the most common mistakes I see when conducting UX reviews for SaaS businesses.

If a user interacts with Element A and receives feedback in the form of Action B, this interaction should be consistent throughout the product. It’s that simple. Essentially, it comes down to the following three C’s.

𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲: It should be clear which elements are interactive and which aren’t.
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲: Maintain a consistent design language throughout your product to avoid confusing users.
𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞: Tooltips, copy, micro-interactions, and other feedback strategies can all help maintain a consistent experience.

Animation, universal indicators and accessibility

Love them or hate them, animations are everywhere. They guide users to take action when needed and improve the overall user experience — at least, that’s the theory…However, it’s important to realize that not all users perceive visual cues in the same way.

Animation can be problematic for users who rely on screen readers and keyboard navigation. What good is an animation or visual indicator if it goes unseen? What purpose does an animation serve if it has the potential to create confusion?

If you want to animate graphical elements, go nuts! But adding them to anything that can be interpreted as “actionable” doesn’t make sense.

Adhere to the three C’s: Clarity, Consistency, and Communication, and we’ll all be better off.

Conclusion

As product people, we do our best to create useful and intuitive products, but we’re only human. We mess up. We fall prey to trends. But as product people, we have to design software that instills confidence. A consistent experience can minimize the risk of losing users before their journey even begins.

So please; Remember to audit your website and app regularly. Test your UX design choices, and whenever possible, get a fresh perspective. We’re usually the worst choice to spot our own mistakes. If that means getting an outside, unbiased UX review of your product, then so be it. But just remember, If in doubt, leave it out!

A real-life interaction inspired this post. If you have any similar experiences or insights, share them in the comments!

If you’d like to learn more about how I help businesses get out of jams like this, take a look at my profile or head over to my website.