10 mistakes every UI/UX designer makes

In this article, we are going to cover the 10 major mistakes that almost every beginner UI or UX designer makes. If you are a new designer, you can go through our list and avoid doing these mistakes or correct them if already done. Lets get started…

1) Giving more emphasis to creativity than usability

Hey designers! Don’t overload your projects with your superpowers. Use your creative abilities to a certain limit and only when required. Always remember, that your first priority should be the usability of a product. Even a lot of creativity cannot save a product from sinking if it does not solve its actual purpose.

2) Not giving thought to typography and colors

You need to choose the right typeface (serif or sans serif), font size, formatting and color palette which suits the personality of your product. Otherwise your product might look like having a split personality disorder. Also, the color palette which you choose for your product should give the right amount of contrast so that content is easy to read.

3) Getting carried away with unrealistic trends

Take a deep breath and relax! You don’t need to follow every design trend you see in people’s online portfolio. Most of these trends aren’t even actually used in any real product. They are only used for portfolio display. Incorporate only those trends in your design which fits the product requirements.

4) Breaking design conventions

Designers should always keep the design conventions in mind. Breaking the design conventions can increase the cognitive load of users. People already have a lot of pressure these days so why increase it, right?

Users are already comfortable with these conventions as they have been experiencing similar things throughout the web. This doesn’t mean you get no freedom while designing. But, if you will make a recycle bin look like a cat, it would not make sense to the user and will leave him frustrated. And who wants frustrated users? Not me!

5) Ignoring responsive design

You must have come across this sometime in your life. When you’re trying to fill a form using your phone but are unable to check that checkbox which is laughing at you from the extreme corner of your phone. Sigh! This happens when websites are not designed in a responsive way.

By ‘responsive way’ we mean, your website should be properly functional irrespective of the platform and orientation.

But fear not my friend! It isn’t as difficult as it sounds. There are a few software like WordPress which can help you build responsive design of your website by automatically converting it for other platforms. You just need to test it and make any changes if required. Easy peasy?

6) Designing confusing navigation

Navigation of a product needs to be crystal clear. You don’t need chamber of secrets in your website. The user should be able to reach any content easily. Also, the user shouldn’t feel lost on your website. There should be some indicator to tell him in which part of the website he is presently and how to go back home.

7) Being inconsistent in design

You want to be consistent with your design throughout the product and not give sudden shocks to the users. If you are choosing different typefaces for heading and paragraphs, you need to follow this throughout your design. Consistency brings a sense of familiarity in the content and hence users are easily able to use your product.

8) Not finalizing content hierarchy

Setting content hierarchy makes your product look clean, organized and easily accessible. Dividing the content in proper categories and subcategories and specifying the content placement can instantly increase the usability of a product.

9) Directly designing high fidelity prototype

Lazy we! You might feel like skipping wireframing sometimes. Doing this might increase the efforts and cost in later stages. Low fidelity prototyping helps you define the structure of your product and find problems early. There can be some rare cases which do not require lo-fi prototyping but as I said, those are rare.

10) Predicting user requirements

Hey forecaster! From our past experiences, we might think that we know what the users need. But that might not be the case. You shouldn’t come to any conclusion without following proper procedure and analysis. You might be right as well but…no compromising with the product.

Conclusion

Feeling guilty? Don’t! Every designer does these mistakes initially. But the good ones learn and improve themselves. The sooner a designer makes mistakes the sooner he will be able to correct them. Enjoy the process of becoming better with each passing day.

Illustration references: https://undraw.co/