UX 2020 On-The-Go Quick Tips

Getting to the core directly, general very quick UX tips for beginners and even pros, for common repeated issues i saw, after been working for +7 years in UX:

• DESIGN ON REAL DATA. Spend more time in putting the worst case scenario in designs, even if this will affect the so beautiful design you created. Most of the behance profiles now show really good designs, but not realistic, with fake data, if used for them the real data for fields and so, the design gets totally corrupted and sometimes the entire experience gets corrupted.
• Stop using everything from ready UI Kits, all of the designs are almost similar now and this is leading to really poor UX as the different functionalities usually vary.
• Navigate through analytics and data properly, don't take one pattern, one scenario, have multiple patterns for different causes, worst and best cases, different platforms, diverse segmentations, so you create an awesome pattern that could be reliable in your assumptions.
• Get aligned with BACKEND. Get aligned with BACKEND. At the very early stage, align your Information Architecture and full-flow with the backend, to not stay stuck in loops later. Put all scenarios on the table, all the failing scenarios and ask about each affected scenario technically from backend, cover all errors and how to recover from those errors.
• Every design you have, every new idea you propose, everything is an assumption, until validated with data, later. Don't feel disappointed, it's all hypothesis at first, ideally when built on data, long experience will help in choosing proper paths to be taken.
• Mind always the text sizes for the human eyes and on the smallest devices, the buttons spacing according to human fingers in mobile screens, i see some buttons are almost intersected without spacing.
• Stop asking for everything, Google it first, try yourself and put some effort. Ex: (don't ask here what's the ideal text size for bla bla..) this won't lead you to the best answer.
• Avoid cliches and old ways for processes and how to work, find the best process for your business according to your data and existing resources. Not because someone follows certain behavior you need to follow that. Ex: (no need to do wireframes by paper and pin, that's very old behavior, but some people think you gotta do it to have -full process- that's bullshit.
• Follow data always, and ask yourself proper questions to get proper answers. :D
• One more time, data beats emotions, follow them.

Ammar Mokhtar - UX Consultant

Reachable on [email protected]