Keeping your visitors engaged is quite challenging. Therefore, besides the interactive and creative content and graphical elements, the User Interface (UI) bears the utmost significance.
Be it a website or a mobile app; a UI design has to do with both the outer layer of the design and the placement of elements in the design. Precisely, UI design refers to everything that is seen on screen. However, the usability of the design is the most crucial part.
In the fast-paced digital era, people lack time to interpret complex designs. Hence, it is in every website designer’s favour to draw a simple yet engaging and user-friendly UI design.
Frequent UI Design Mistakes
As a UI designer, you should be aware of common mistakes to build a better design to achieve your client’s goals. If you know what to consider while designing, you will be more likely to design a website that matches your client’s requisites while making it easy to use but leaving a notable impression on the viewers.
Consider the following to avoid repeated UI errors:
Inconsistent Design
Why would you not want to make a coherent and consistent design that will be more pleasing to one’s eye?
Consistency is integral, and the designer needs to ensure all similar actions and elements look and act the same.
So, if a team member’s name slides up to show the about us, then every team member’s name should act and display the about us the same way. For a subheading, if Helvetica font is used, then the remaining subheadings should bear the same font, with the same font size and colour.
Planning your design helps you with consistency. For example, creating a list of actions and dividing them into groups with the same appearance and functionality makes it easier to have the first draft ready.
Once done, decide on one UI element for each group to ensure consistency.
Poor Choice of Colours
Poor choice of colours can hurt the design. But how do we identify what are the wrong colours?
Well, colours portray meaning; hence you need to research your client’s brand and audience. Also, don’t forget to colour-code, and use the same colours for the same functions, ensuring consistency.
Another colour mistake to highlight – limit the number of colours to two or three main ones to avoid an overwhelming feeling. Always remember colours are not the coolest way to grab attention.
Much Wordy
Another one that irritates the majority is too much text!
Getting a wordy website can take the message away from the visitors. After all, if the reader is bogged down to several thousand words, they might leave immediately or after reading a couple of headings. Either way, the message is lost – leaving the visitor annoyed and resulting in the loss of a prospect.
So, say it all compactly. Instead of words, use more visuals. And, of course, headings, subheadings, and bullets too.
Compatible with Other Devices
This should never be the case. Never ignore the fact that many users access websites over their smartphones.
Unfortunately, in this digital era, such designs are still made. Maybe the businesses don’t want to invest in creating a mobile-optimised design.
But for professionals, this error of not optimising the website for multiple devices should definitely no longer exist.
Poor Performance
Slow loading time and glitchiness are what I meant by poor performance. If any part of your website, any graphical element or animation, is taking too long to load or is too glitchy, then it’s surely an alarming situation.
Nobody has time to wait for slow-loading websites, and that’s how you may lose a great many visitors. Neither people like seeing animations that don’t move smoothly, taking the user’s trust way down.
Always remember that humans are after real-life-like interactions – crisp and smooth!
Too Many Clicks
The more clicks the user has to pass through to make the final purchase, the more sales will be lost. It depends on the length of the form and what it takes to locate it.
For instance, if the user wishes to sign in, then the option should be somewhere in front where it is evident and can be immediately seen by the user.
Complicated Navigation
Navigation of a website should be easy and not confusing. I have found a few websites that have made me want to bang the screen. When users face the hassle of moving back and forth between the pages easily or having to scroll a lot for relevant information, they will go somewhere else instead of bearing all of that irritation.
A UI design should be able to locate pages easily and move or navigate freely. The entire design should flow simply and naturally.
Poorly Designed Forms
Poorly designed sign-up and order forms are the real pain. Forms should be made in a way so that they can be filled out easily and are bug-free. Make sure to add numbers to guide the users properly. Also, when users click enter, make sure the submit button clicks.
Inspect the form to detect any bugs. For instance, the fields should not go blank if an error message appears. It has happened quite a few times that I was asked to fill out the entire form again after an error message. This makes the user go mad. Moreover, don’t include unnecessary fields that are a waste of time.
No Feedback
Let’s say your website takes a few seconds to load and is a bit slow sometimes, so would you make the user sit idle and see the loading icon spin round and round? I don’t think so unless you want to lose your potential prospects.
How about creating interest for them by making them read something or watching an interesting animation?
Don’t forget about the feedback when simply clicking on items. Anytime a user clicks on something and is waiting for it to load – give them feedback to hold on to them.
Unattractive Graphics
Using stock images is quite mainstream and boring, honestly. They have no enticing element for the viewers. If you aim to generate leads, you need to spend time designing graphics that evoke interest.
For explaining a large chunk of information, try using infographics so that website skimmers can also comprehend what is being said and talked about.
As said, the first impression is the last; hence your website needs to have that killer first impression.
A good UI design is equivalent to chilled water on a hot summer day. Making your viewers trust your design can help you generate leads and conversions.
