Hygiene features, and how they make or break a product

'Usability Hygiene' in product design ensures your flow is practical and error-free. Hygiene is about getting the basics right, and this is easy to overlook in lue of innovation. Don't get us wrong; innovation is necessary for a product however, without hygiene, the product breaks, and the innovation won't see the light of day. Assume you are designing an e-commerce app; these features would be an hygiene in your design process:

1. Easy login & registration
2. Well-aligned first scroll for categories
3. Add to cart button in product gallery (not just in individual product display pages)?
4. Menu bar with essentials - orders, delivery tracking and returns.

So don't just consider it as a function, it's crucial to thoughtfully design them. Unapplied usability hygiene can be a recipe for disaster.?

Let us highlight a couple of hygiene features to get you convinced:?

1. The Back Button

A subconsciously placed design element - The back button. Designers are often more concerned about the content on the screen than getting the navigation right. Tell us, how many times have you totally hated an app experience just because you couldn’t get where you wanted to? We bet you’ve experienced it at some point.?

If the navigation flow is left as an afterthought, it could really break the user experience. Imagine a user wanting to go one step back, but because the navigation isn’t well thought through, now the user is thrown to the start of the flow. There’s a good chance the user would just abandon the flow in frustration.?

How to incorporate it: Always create a clickable prototype for your designs. Get a 3rd person to review the prototype on the phone & help complete the desired journey. You’ll be surprised how a fresh pair of eyes can dissect your product & respond differently. This way, you’ll immediately know if your navigation flow is broken.?

2. The First Scroll

Users today are exposed to multiple digital products, which leaves them making decisions in seconds. For instance, a user lands on an application, and the first scroll does not communicate the key offering or address what they are looking for. Irrespective of how visually appealing the product is, the user abandons it in a matter of seconds.?

Building relevance in the first scroll is crucial to engage the user. That includes ensuring your key communication, offerings and CTA’s fall within the first scroll of your designs.?

How to incorporate it: While designing an end-to-end screen is essential, the first screen's first scroll requires special attention—think like a user & their needs. For the web, we at Designcoz recommended maximum height to be 800px, while for mobile, 720px is the maximum height recommended when designing the first scroll.

3. Add, Edit, and Delete Journey

When designing a user information capture flow, the product team puts all efforts towards creating a smooth & less overwhelming flow to "Add details". The edit and delete features are probably forgotten. But what if a user added pseudo details just to get through the login process? What if they now need to add, edit or delete a piece of information which isn't relevant anymore? Being unable to edit can lead to inconvenience < frustration < mistrust < support team workload. Add, edit & delete is a crucial journey a designer shouldn't overlook.

How to incorporate it:?Always design the add flows along with the edit and delete flows. In places where these flows need compliance proof and editing details is impossible; it's essential to add the necessary communication to notify the user that new information cannot be changed once added during the detail-capturing journey as well as the edit section.?

4. Search Bar

One of the most important hygiene features – a search bar helps a user search precisely what they are looking for. Imagine an e-commerce website without a search bar and how frustrated a user would be if they couldn’t find what they came for. If users have to search high and low through your home page, navigation bar, or help centre to find what they are looking for, chances are they might just abandon your site.

How to incorporate it: We know it’s not the edgiest design feature, but it provides instant gratification and allows users to quickly find what they need when they need it. The brownie point - a good user experience & low fall-out rate.?

For most product teams, 'Hygiene' is treated as a name-sake subconscious functionality feature & it's okay to not be thoughtful about it. When in reality, product hygiene isn't merely about making the basics of your product right; it's about making the basics delightful.?

Keeping product hygiene the core of our innovation, we've built an AI-powered tool called Mockups in Minutes that automates the most common design flows and delivers app mockups in a jiffy. What it does for you:

• Applies the best UI-UX practices?
• Automates common design workflows
• Provides customized templates?

Watch the demo today:?