UX Myths That You Thought Were True

At some point of the year, the senior management may ask you to revamp your website just to keep up with the latest trends of design and UX. They may argue that this will lead to better satisfaction by improving the interaction of the users’. However, this is not always the case.

Lets look at some UX Myths that need to be addressed.

1) You are like your users

When designing, you have to keep in mind users are different than you. You are passionate about your product or service, and see the website from a different perspective. The users, however, are different. They are less likely to care about your offering than you are. They interact with your website to achieve a certain goal. The way users comprehend information on the website would be different than you would and would have different attitudes.

To avoid this problem, you need to involve a set of users early on during the design phase and learn about them. Your interaction to assess their needs and desires will help you make better decisions.

2) If Apple has used it, I should too

Usually when people are creating their first, they tell the designers they want a website similar to that of a renowned company, like Apple; the similar icons, effects, and layouts. What they fail to realize is that the audience of Apple is different. Their attitudes, goals, and desires are different. Their personas are different.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t copy the elements you really like. But what is important is that you to figure out what made them design those elements in the first place, why it worked for them and how it might work for you.

3) Users will use your product the way you imagined they would

Often times your gut feeling says you know your users very well. You assume that you are aware of all the use cases. But often this is a misconception. Even though a product may have been designed to fulfill a specific need, there might be chances that users interact with it differently.

Take for example the Google search bar, where many naive users enter a complete url, instead of entering it on the browser’s address bar. Hence, you should always collect information on how your product is being used. This often opens up new ideas and innovations.

4) You need to re-design your website from time to time

As I mentioned earlier about re-designing the website to keep up with the latest trends of UI/UX, this does not work for everyone. Users are resistant to changes. They adapt to the interface and expect a similar experience at every usage. Re-designing your website periodically changes the overall experience.

Companies such as Google and Facebook update their interfaces with minor changes. These are based on real analytics and behaviour of users. Take for example the Facebook’s ‘Like’ button, that was improved at times, which many of the users didn’t notice. But, Facebook transitioning from a wall to a timeline view, was a major change, and these changes don’t happen often, as they affect the overall experience of users by a great extent. Hence, make minor modifications based on real data to make the product better, without harming the user experience. Implement major design changes only when the need is very high.

5) Stock photos improve users’ experience

Some believe, adding professional stock photos will add value to a website. Eye-tracking studies have shown, however, that this is not the case. Stock photos look professional, without any doubt, but they often harm the overall user experience. This is due to lack of relation between the image and your offering. Users now are more aware and detect a stock photo immediately. They can simply tell.

Hence, use real images as much as you can. Take them professionally, and use them as media for all your marketing and sales purposes. This is something that will definitely add value to your website.

Wrap up

UX is one of the important driving forces to a product’s success. Design changes based on real data help businesses make better decisions to meet the desires and needs of users. Hence, understand what the users actually need and create designs that are not only highly usable, but also result in a memorable user experience.

We will share some more myths with you in the coming days. Stay tuned!

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