Five key areas to look at in your business

Across retail, travel, finance and SaaS industries, we have found that there are many common UX pitfalls that businesses fall into, time and time again. 

These pitfalls are hindering the user experience and creating higher levels of customer churn, impacting negatively on customer loyalty and encouraging users to go to competitors.

According to Jakob’s law, users will transfer expectations they have built around one familiar product or service to another that appears similar. This means that if a user has a bad experience on your website or app, they will look to a competitor to find the good experience that they are expecting.

In this article, we’ll explore the top five UX pitfalls that businesses often make and how to avoid them.

1. Ignoring Mobile Responsiveness

Research shows that European mobile data traffic will triple by 2028 driven by the adoption of 5G and migration into 4G. By overlooking mobile responsiveness, users will have a bad experience with your brand, leading to frustration and abandonment. 

Prioritising responsive design ensures that your product or service looks and functions well on a variety of screen sizes, enhancing user satisfaction and engagement.

2. Neglecting User Research

Many businesses believe that what they think they know about their users is what their users want. This isn’t always the case. For example, a business may think a different colour call to action will help more users from Cart page to Checkout as their competitor does this, however when they optimise the site, they don’t see any positive results.

The reason for this is because they did not conduct any qualitative research or testing with users to verify, not only was the call to action colour their preference but whether it addressed their needs.

It is imperative that when we optimise our online product or service, that we conduct qualitative research or testing and gather user’s feedback. This can be done through AB testing or multivariate testing or conducting user testing labs or user interviews.

3. Lack of Personalisation / Individualisation

Personalisation has been a trending topic for a while and has developed many meanings to it, including the well-known personalised email communication; for example: Dear [Customer name]. Through to personalising website content according to user preferences. Nowadays, personalisation has evolved even further, into individualisation. 

Personalisation has been defined as a broad categorisation of pre-defined groups, while individualisation aims to create unique experiences for each individual user, representing a more nuanced, granular level experience.

Individualisation is a relatively new concept, however users are already expecting some form of personalisation and these needs are growing. Businesses need to begin investing in personalising their user experience to improve customer retention and satisfaction.

4. Underestimating the Importance of Page Load Speed

We have all been there, waiting for a website page or app to load so we can research or purchase the product we want. This has always been a frustrating experience but now, users will simply not tolerate it and will leave and move to a competitor.

Research by Deloitte shows that mobile site speed improvements have been proven to have a direct correlation to improved funnel progression.

Evaluate your website or app performance using Pagespeed Insights or Lighthouse and optimise it by compressing images, limiting redirect usage and other best practices for a functioning, fast and enjoyable user experience.

5. Overlooking Data Privacy and 1st Party data

Users are more aware than ever about Privacy regulations and the management of their data. Users may feel uneasy about the amount of data being collected without understanding the purpose, leading to distrust in your product.

At the same time, businesses are loosing access to 3rd party data, as per Google’s previous announcements, meaning that prioritising a 1st party data strategy is essential now. This is not only important to maintain trust in your brand but also to continue to personalise services and drive targeted marketing campaigns.

If your website collects user data, consider a 1st party data strategy that looks to optimise existing data collection, potential new data collection points and overall user experience.

Conclusion

Avoiding these common UX mistakes is essential for businesses striving to create products that resonate with their audience. By prioritising mobile responsiveness, user research, personalisation, site speed and 1st party data, businesses can build digital products that not only meet user expectations but also contribute to long-term success and customer retention.

If you’d like to learn how to optimise for these common UX pitfalls, DM us on Linkedin or book a free, non-obligation call on our website at www.uxandwhy.com