5 UI and UX mistakes that destroy interface (still in 2019)

As Bruce Lee once told:

I’m not afraid of someone who knows 1000 tricks, I am afraid of someone who knows 1 trick 1000 times.

It fits perfectly to what I’m going to tell you today: UI mistakes.

These simple rules are the backbone of every UI, so if you don’t address them properly, no matter what — your design will lose a lot.

Mistake 1: Inconsistent Visual Hierarchy

Did you know that the attention span of an average user is 8 seconds?

It means user should understand the information from UI in 8 seconds, if she doesn’t – user bounces and adds to your churn rate.

UI must follow these rules to stay visually consistent:

• Eliminate all extra information (don’t show user info she doesn’t need)
• Use an appropriate heading structure (users scan your text — give them anchors)
• Visually highlight important elements — if the most important information is photos – make them visible.
• Create logical groups: If something is logically connected, group it on a page or display identically.

Mistake 2: Follow the guidelines? No, thanks, I’m an artist!

We, UI designers, are creative minds and want to invent something brand new.

But look at these 2 cars:

They both follow the guidelines:

• Have 4 wheels
• Driver seat is inside the cabin
• and round-form steering wheel

However, these cars are absolutely different in terms of user perception!

The same thing comes with UI and UX, there’s no need to question what is widely accepted, all innovations are built on small victories of others.

So, here are some rules to follow:

• Do competitor interface research: (google it, search app directories e.g producthunt.com, betalist.com, etc)
• Do related interface research: (if you are asked to build some custom filter, check how such filters work in other industries)
• Check patterns: visit UI-Patterns.com or other similar sites to find patterns for your problem
• Mix features: maybe you need a news feed with a slider gallery? maybe google forms with a shopping cart? Just play with it.

Mistake 3: Don’t produce extra entities

Human mind has limited mental resources. When user opens UI and sees some unfamiliar things in catalog, product page or profile, she becomes puzzled.

As Steve Krug told: Don’t make me think.

So when you build UI, use this cheatsheet:

• Check duplicate interfaces. Do you have multiple navigations? Do you have different UX patterns for one user job? If yes — fix it.
• Examine UI on waste. You have a shopping list and favourites in the UI that both address the same problem. Do users really need both?

Mistake 4: Don’t speak Dothraki with users.

Every UI interface MUST meet user expectations. When I see “Profile” in the navigation, I expect to see my profile when I click/touch this button, not some settings. When I open How-to Guides, I want to see practical guides — not an essay.

You should use words that help users navigate the UI faster and more effectively:

• Be precise. If you are building a task manager UI around Kanban boards like Trello did, use the word ‘Boards’ instead of ‘Projects’.
• Long and clear text is better than short and uncertain, but short and clear is the best.

Mistake 5: Don’t forget about Analytics and Iteration

Houston, we have a problem: Design is never perfect.

After all the edits it's no surprise designers often feel like they're sick of the UI and simply want to get rid of it. This is a wrong mindset.

Many designers suffer from perfectionism. And here is the trick: if you think of design as of an iterative process, you can perfect UI iteratively.

And you have a bunch of tools to help you find new UI insights based on user activity:

• Heatmaps. See how people interact with your interface, maybe some important features are the ones users rarely see? Try Hotjar or Yandex Webvisor as a stating point.
• User funnels. User has a door where she enters and the door where she leaves UI. Did she saw everything that you expected? Maybe you think most of users come from a landing page you’ve crafted so tediously, but it turned out that most of the users land on some page from you blog? Welcome them with an appropriate UI. Use Google Analytics User flows report to find out how the users navigate you app.

Hope it was useful. If interested, DM me in twitter: https://twitter.com/Alisa_Smelkova