Good UX, Bad UX – What Are Some Common Mistakes?

If you spend any amount of time on the internet you are going to come across websites that make you cringe or drive you nuts. These are examples of bad UX. Of course, you will also come across websites that you can spend hours browsing and will come back to time and again. These are generally examples of good UX.

When a user has a good experience on your website or with your app, they will be inclined to keep coming back. The opposite is also true.

The thing is, user experience is a very subjective thing. Each person is different, and each person has different pet peeves and things that they love. However, there are a few mistakes that are common and really bad.

Mystery meat

You know those dishes that you’ve been served and you’re not entirely sure what they are? It happens on apps and websites too and it’s not a great experience for users. If you are going to build something, make sure that it is logical and that people will intuitively know what to do with it.

A good example of mystery meat would be using icons or labels on buttons that are not representative of what the button does.

Keep it simple

Users want to get to the information they want by means of the least number of clicks. The more clicks you have between the entry point and the end destination, the more likely you are to lose a visitor.

A good example is the dropdown menu. It gives developers and designers a way to get a lot of information into a small space, but it also causes confusion for users. Users may click on the wrong item or may even forget that a certain functionality is there.

For more common and really bad UX mistakes, read Jonathan Kim’s article on Appcues.

For more UX information, read this article on Toptal.