These 5 Major UI Mistakes will Kill Your App

by Asha Jane Brown | October 31, 2019 7:45 am

Elaborate user interface (UI) design of the app seems to be a secondary priority for 6 out of 10 owners. Well, their loss. UI plays a significant role in the market success of any app. A poorly designed app and bad user interface can affect both performance and popularity.

There is no universal formula for a perfect user interface design. Still, there are core rules and UI design principles[1] you should follow to make your application not only good looking but also functional and easy to use.

Want to avoid common UI design pitfalls? Watch the list of most frequently committed mistakes by UI designers in today’s blog article.

user interface mistakes

Pitfall #1 Abusing fonts

One of the best options when choosing a font for your app is to use the system one. That is a secure and easy way to ensure proper displaying[2] of the app content on the screen. However, some device manufacturers, e.g. Samsung, enables its users to change default fonts. That can cause your aesthetically designed app to be completely distorted.

The other option is to choose customs fonts. Remember, the fewer the number of fonts you choose, the better it looks. There are a lot of amazing fonts, but stay rational. A big number of font types, sizes, and colors only complicate and clutters the app. Also, try to keep all your fonts coherent and related.

Pitfall #2 Overabundance of elements

When the size of our phone screens was small, app designers encountered challenges trying to fit all the necessary elements into the screen. With the production of the telephones of bigger sizes, we can now place a lot more elements and buttons, which becomes another trap. Too many elements complicate interaction with the app and disorient the users. Designing an app, try not to distract the user’s attention and with additional buttons and information that can be omitted.

Pitfall #3 Lack of Interaction Feedback

App feedback is essential for a convenient user interface. Make this feedback visible to keep the application cross-functional. If the app lacks relevant feedback, its users will have to guess their actions, which leads to poor user experience. What are the ways to provide interactive feedback? It can take a form of a message on the screen, or visual pop up, you can highlight a taped element, make a device vibrate. The more responsive and intuitive a UI is, the better is user experience.

Pitfall #4 Lack of Social Media Links

If you want to make your app more handy and usable, link it to social media. Nowadays, people are extremely fond of social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., and their integration with your app will greatly enhance its usability. Moreover, substitute a long process of signing up for your app with an option to sign in using social media profiles.

social media icons

Pitfall #5 Abusing Notifications

Push notifications can be a tricky part of the app. If there are too many of them, users will probably turn them off and forget about the app. If there are a few of them, their same scenario is possible. But not only the frequency of notification matters. It is also their content. For example, notifications about new messages are really useful, while notifications about every day updates or news can be redundant and make users switch them off.

Every notification is an interaction with the user[3], which can either improve the user experience or lead to uninstalling the app.

Last word

The final goal for UI designers is to produce aesthetic and intuitive interfaces and get more conversions. If your goal is to provide seamless user experience, keep all these pieces of advice in mind as a checklist of things to avoid while designing. Still, only proper testing and quality assurance can fully ensure that the app design meets all user expectations.

QATestLab conducts functional, UI and usability testing and other QA activities[4] for mobile applications and has more than 500 projects accomplished. We are ready to help your app achieve success it deserves and get a thousand downloads.

Learn more from QATestLab

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Endnotes:
  1. UI design principles: https://blog.qatestlab.com/2019/10/29/kids-applications-ui-ux/
  2. to ensure proper displaying: https://qatestlab.com/services/manual-testing/ux-usability-testing/
  3. interaction with the user: https://blog.qatestlab.com/2011/02/26/mobile-app-testing-know-thy-user/
  4. QA activities: https://blog.qatestlab.com/2011/12/21/quality-assurance-activities-in-software-processes/
  5. GUI Testing vs Usability Testing: https://blog.qatestlab.com/2015/10/21/gui-usability-testing/
  6. Everything You Should Know About Accessibility Testing: https://blog.qatestlab.com/2021/08/18/accessibility-testing/
  7. Kids Apps UI/UX requirements: https://blog.qatestlab.com/2019/10/29/kids-applications-ui-ux/

Source URL: https://blog.qatestlab.com/2019/10/31/major-ui-mistakes/