Top 10 mistakes in Сreating UX Design for Web Applications

Making UX design for web applications is a challenging task. It requires deep expertise and knowledge of cutting edge technologies as there is a lot of competition for customers’ recognition among businesses.

 So what do users expect from a good web app?

• They want it to be understandable. Try to make your application as user-friendly as possible. Customers are not likely to spend time on learning how to use an app, they would rather download another one.
• Users want an application to be efficient. It should meet the customers’ needs and desires. So designers need to follow adaptive web development principles and perform design optimization.
• An app should be personalized. Users don't like being forced to enter all kinds of personal information into an app all the time, so it's better to free them from this unpleasant duty.

If you want to create a perfect design for your web app and achieve your business goals, you need to avoid some common UX mistakes. Here is the list of top 10 pitfalls that UX designers should keep in mind.

1. Inventing a new UX design for desktop

Sometimes, inspiration and creative hazard push developers to 'invent' their own unique interfaces. But it might turn out that users can hardly adjust to the suggested UI or do not accept it at all.

The right thing to do is to follow Material Design principles by Google and Human Interface Design by Apple. These days there is a large variety of HTML5 UI libraries that allow applying these principles to the desktop. In addition, with such frameworks, you can save time on prototyping and web development.

The external simplicity of material design principles often gives an impression that all interfaces built on the basis of this UX philosophy tend to be faceless and uniform. But, this is only the first impression. You should dive deeper into the basics of material design, and it'll become clear that with this concept you can create your own unique interfaces, complex UI widgets and a variety of layouts. The only thing that you have to do is to adhere strictly to modern responsive practices.

2. Poor optimization and low scrolling performance

Each of us has encountered a problem of webpage freezing or web browser low performance. For the most part, these issues are caused not by your hardware problems but by poor optimization of the current web application.

It's the speed and responsiveness of a web app interface that contribute to the improvement of user experience. So developers should implement the UI layout and web elements correctly to guaranty lazy drawing strategy and achieve smooth page scrolling.

Another important category is the 'perceived' performance of a web application. This category includes a number of factors (perhaps, we'll write a separate article about it). Here are the most important of them:

• Responsiveness of an application at any time. Your interface should always remain functional and refreshed, even when there is a dynamic loading of data or a complete updating of all the content.
• Progress bars. They allow users to understand that data are already loading, and meanwhile, they can use other UI controls.

3. Desire to accommodate all controls in one layout

 On the one hand, an ideal UI should fit in the visible area of a screen. But in reality there are different screen sizes, that's why it is necessary to group controls for the purpose intended. You should divide a control panel into tabs and groups. Moreover, don't forget to think over a UX strategy and make it logical and clear.

 4. Not saving current data state

You need to take into account possible connectivity breaks or page reloading. If a web application ensures cookie, local or session data storage and data restoration after page reloading, then it has a seamless and hassle-free user experience.

5. Wrong use of keyboard shortcuts

It is necessary to adhere to the generally accepted (or most popular) keyboard shortcut combinations so that users can go through their usual procedures with the help of the keyboard.

6. Drag-n-drop technique neglect

Drag-n-drop is appropriate for both working with data, tables, and creating a custom dashboard layout. It is necessary not only to ensure the correct operation of Drag-n-drop techniques but also help users with visual indicators prompting where and how you can use Drag-n-drop.

7. Absence of default values

Default values can accelerate the interaction with users by freeing them from the necessity to specify a value if the default is agreeable. They also direct new users to a safe outcome, by giving them an opportunity to accept the default if they don't have any other ideas. In addition, default settings can save a lot of time and effort in repetitive activities. One more important role of default values is user training. They give users ideas of what dimensions and properties can be used in different situations.

8. Confusing icons

Icons should be made clear and understandable to everyone. Some icons may seem universal but eventually, turn out to be unfamiliar to many users. And it's much worse if there are icons that are unique as it's very unlikely that users will understand what they mean. Visual identification is very important but we can't be 100% sure that the selected samples will be correctly perceived by the targeted audience, so you shouldn't neglect the tooltips.

9. Inconsistent style

Another widespread mistake is to use different fonts, button styles, content layout, color schemes, etc. It's crucial to stick to one style within an application so as not to confuse customers and improve user experience. Try to elaborate design skins thoroughly and stay within the created styles, especially since there are convenient tools for solving these tasks.

10. Lack of ability to determine priorities

In order to prevent information disorder, it is essential to define the most important elements for users and secondary ones. Visual hierarchy is very important for effective UX design, as it allows making the main objects more outstanding, and the secondary elements less distracting. In this way, an interface becomes more convenient for users.

Bottom line

The tips mentioned above can help you avoid some of the most widespread UX mistakes while creating design for your web app. Put your customers' needs first and use the latest web design technologies. In this way, your web application is sure to be a great success.

The article was written in cooperation with the UX experts of webix.com.