The noise and clamor around designing perfect mobile UX is not unjustified considering the key role it plays in the rise and fall of apps. App UX design more than anything else requires fixing your attention on user situation, context and typical expectation. You need to come out of your subjective ideas and design the app for your audience alone. The biggest mistake is to take their attention and time for granted. This mind set allows you to make them sign up a long form, offer a clutter of text with nothing readily recognizable and so on and so forth. Here we are going to introduce 7 deadly mobile UX design mistakes you need to avoid.
- Creating obligation for signing in
We are all aware of the tons of advantages in having users signing in but we cannot disagree over the pain caused by it for the users. Mobile users being the most impatient lot most of the time prefers to skip apps asking for too personal data for signing in. So, often sign up process lead to loss of potential users.
This is why it is advisable to allow users temporarily skip registration and use the app to know the value being offered. Once they find the app valuable or irresistible they can nod positively to your signup request and you are done with.
- Trying to create value with onboarding tutorials
Many apps use onboarding tutorials to give first time users an idea of the value of the app. Well, it is a great technique to make users assured of the app value proposition before signing in. But would all users have the equal patience to go with this? Our reasoning says no, because mobile users are increasingly impatient and with the mobile web became stronger than web interfaces for other devices they are confident to find what they need without wasting least amount of time. So, such value creating techniques can be inappropriate for majority of impatient users.
- Clutter of text
Almost all studies conducted on mobile and web visitors are agreed irrevocably on one point that majority of users spend less than 15 seconds on a text page and they only prefer to glance through the text for a quick grasp of what it is all about. Moreover, a clutter of text makes interface too boring and lacking any immersive quality. A cluttered view with too many texts makes poor business conversion.
The most effective solution is to make your content prominent by allowing a lot of white or empty space around the text. Use minimum text optimized with empty space around and make sure that the typography is consistent, scalable in size across device screens and not capable to cause distraction.
- Copying UX of other apps
You already know the accepted good practices in UX design and you have seen countless great apps with their mix of UX elements. Now you have an impression of the UX you want for your new app. But unconsciously you have forgot that the UX you are after matches another app so much that it can easily be considered as ‘copied’. Well, this can be a big blunder whether you fall upon it knowingly or unknowingly.
Irrespective of good and bad practices what remains as the winning factor to make your app stand out in the crowd is the uniqueness. From your app objectives to target audience to value proposition, feature set, functional ease and design, all aspects must have a unique consideration. Just like their creator human beings apps have to be unique to make an impression.
- Not taking time taken by app update seriously
Most of the common problems concerning app UX begins with the lack of understanding of the impatience of mobile users. Unlike web here users tend to prefer services that do things in a breeze. Often time consuming app updates make users decide to leave the app. If the update take hours and often gets disturbed in between users even can decide to leave altogether and dump the app. So, app makers must ensure faster server response time for updates.
It is more advisable to avoid frequent need of updates by upgrading every aspect before launch. Fixing app mistakes is a strenuous process and so you should launch the app only after ensuring the user experience in all regards. Even when updating the latest version is absolutely necessary make sure users can do it without least friction.
- Inconsistent design
Design inconsistency is the biggest fault making suffer so many apps. In spite of the aesthetically appealing and immersive design aspects these apps simply cannot make themselves interesting just because of inconsistent design. Besides creating user impression design inconsistency also causes confusion in user interface. From clickable buttons to the design layout to typography to color and contrast, all elements should be in concert with one another to make an organic brand impression. A consistent design represents your brand and an impression concerning this would have impact over your business conversion.
First of all, you cannot use symbols and buttons in various sizes, colors and shapes. Such things will confuse users and can be more time consuming to decipher. Coherent signs like sandwich icon for menu, arrow for directions, etc. are all time tested and tried icons and deviating from them will only add to the confusion. Maintaining high level of familiarity and conventional standard in signs and icons will help making the app more useful.
- Not testing enough
Lastly, it is extremely important to test the app on different device screens to assess how design elements look. You can be tempted to use a flashy typography but how does it look in small and big screens of various devices will be decisive. Besides prominence, quick glance readability to finger friendly links and buttons to images, all design elements have to be tested on various screens and devices to ensure optimum usability.
About Author:
Juned Ghanchi is a head of marketing team and co-founder of Indian App Developers Company, which provides mobile app developers for hire for Android and iPhone application development. He enjoys writing on mobile technologies at various blog & magazines.