UX Myths Part 2: Unfolding Some More Myths

In the previous episode, we shared 5 UX myths that people thought were actually true. In this blog, we will talk about five more, that would definitely help you in your upcoming project.

6) The tiny little details won’t matter if the layout is good

When you see a well designed website of your’s, you feel you have accomplished your goal. You believe the website will serve its purpose and help your business grow. But often, you wait for conversions to happen and the results with time disappoint you. You have such a good design, and wonder why people aren’t converting to customers?

This is why small details matter. Those tiny changes to your design may have a huge impact on the overall experience of users. For example, a button to skip sign-up at checkout on BestBuy.com helped them increase $300 million revenue per year. Hence, make sure you take care of the tiny details, such as adding a button, changing a text, reducing the form fields, reducing the number of steps for an action to name a few, that can improve the experience of users.

And yes, we are starting off with number 6. Incase you missed the previous five in our list, click here to go check them out.

7) Add icons! They will improve the experience

This is what you might hear generally from your manager. People believe graphics will always improve the experience, but that is not the case. Generally, users remember the position of the icon, rather than the icon itself.

For example, if I ask you now where would be the “Open file” icon on Ms Word 2011, you can easily say on the top left. But if I ask you to tell me exactly how it looks, you might think for a second and make guesses. This is the exact reason why labels are used. Nothing says better than “Open file” than “Open file” itself. Having a label on hover minimizes the ambiguity of a user on what the icon is actually about. Hence, use labels with introduction of new icons and use text simply where you think it can work better. Not always do icons improve the experience, how they perform on an interface is what adds value.

8) The search feature will ease the navigation

Research suggests, very few people actually use the search bar on a website. Clicking is so much easier for people. They expect reaching the desired information within 3 clicks. The search functionality only comes in handy when a user can’t find, after a decent amount of navigation, the information he is looking for.

If you are looking to solve this problem, its better you spend some time figuring out how to reduce navigations rather than including a search feature. Search option though is integral for e-commerce websites, such as stores, but even then, people look for keywords on your site to take them towards the required information.

9) After the design is complete, only then is the content required

Content is the primary need of users. It is the content of your website that helps you achieve your goals. If you think adding ‘lorem ipsum..’ to all the sections of the website will not require content, in most of the cases, you are mistaken.

Content brings along several supporting assets. Let’s assume, the design has been completed and now as your content is placed, you realize a certain section requires some key supporting graphics along to make it further intuitive. Now, your design has to adapt to these changes. This is exactly what happens in majority of the cases. The good approach here is to have draft content along, to get an idea of the expectations of users and design accordingly. The content can always be changed, but you can save time on design if you have draft content, or even main headings, to understand what support it requires.

10) I have 10 years of experience, and I am sure this is right. We don’t need to test our design

Expert judgement is essential in many projects. But when you are designing, you need something more than just expert judgement. This experience is not your target audience, and hence may miss the real issues. It is important to get in the shoes of the real user and understand their expectations, which keep on changing in this tech world and is hard to predict.

Having years of experience can never neglect testing the design of a product. We are humans, and hence prone to errors. The chances of occurrence of such events may minimize, but they can never be eliminated. Thus, test the design of the product you are developing and include expert judgement as well. Improvise with real data and respond to expectations of ‘real users’.

Wrap up

So this is our second episode on unfolding some of the myths of user experience. For many companies, regular testing and responding to expectations has resulted in massive gains. Once again, I would reiterate that UX is one of the most integral driving forces of a product, and every tiny detail of your product matters.

Enjoyed reading? Feel free to check out the UX best practices