In UX design, people often face these 3 challenges that can get them in trouble when they don’t know how to handle them. Here is how you can avoid these mistakes.
Why this list?
There are several UX design problems you may come across on the Internet that can challenge and affect your project if you don’t know how to hack them. The list of these 3 most common mistakes can help you recognize your setbacks so that you can work on them and improve your skills for future projects.
Mistake 1 – Being Overprotective of UX design and the Dogma of Usability
Many of us tend to make this mistake, especially at the beginning of our UX careers. We first learn a craft and once we own it we tend to defend it with great passion no matter what. Even when this may not be the best choice, we stand by our own words and act way too overprotective of our web design. This can set us back a lot and end up causing more issues in near future.
Protecting UX usability is indeed important. However, it’s also essential for you to adapt your mindset to your client. Once you start working with clients, you will soon realize that most clients don’t even care much about the rulebook of UX. What they focus on instead is selling. Their goal is to create stronger products and to build desire.
The key to a successful partnership and UX design is that you understand your client’s perspective. You need to be able to understand and adapt to differences in perspective. Otherwise, you will end up making the client fit your design goals instead of trying to fit the design into your client’s needs and perspective. This can be a big mistake. Your main goal should always be to reach the client’s goal and meet their idea to create the best possible design. You need to find a way to use your knowledge and skill to meet your client’s wishes and end up programming the design that your client is absolutely satisfied with. Once you align your priorities like this, you will see immediate success when it comes to your ideas.
So, what can you do to avoid making this mistake? Well, you can start by always putting your client’s goals at the forefront of everything you do. You should be asking your clients a lot of questions to gain an understanding of what your client wants. Don’t shy away from asking too much. It’s better to get all of the information you need to create the best possible design than to lack information and end up doing a poor job. Make sure you listen to your clients. Ask them about their business goals and try to craft the best and most efficient product that will ensure your clients reach their ultimate goal.
This step is really important and it can take you miles ahead. If you are equipped and skilled to combat every bent rule, your passion for UX is completely understandable and even admirable. However, you need to learn how and when to adapt your mindset. Flexibility is such an important element that many forget about. Even though the UX rulebook is a useful guide, stepping away from it every once in a while is not always bad.
The next useful tip is to learn the language of your client. This should be your priority. Make sure you are carefully listening to what they are saying and then deduct the information you need and that you think is necessary.
Gaining this perspective mostly comes from experience, as it is with most things in life. However, if you want to read a little bit about it to gain some valuable insight and prepare yourself, these 2 books are amazing for beginners in UX design:
- The Lean Start-Up – This absolute gem of a book will be very helpful for you if you’re a beginner. By reading this book, you will gain a better understanding of the different perspectives and products you work with. This book will provide you with a solid overview of the journey from the product manager to the CEO.
- Hacking Growth – This is another amazing read that covers topics about cross-functional teams and the dynamics between those teams. This book will teach you how to acquire a whole new perspective on products.
Mistake 2 – Scattering Your Lessons and Not Specializing
This is a common problem in almost any field. People lack patience and that can cause them to make huge mistakes in their field. So, even though this one covers pretty much all of the fields, it is an especially important one for UX design.
Starting a new UX design can be very exciting but it’s also extremely challenging. For a lot of people, when they face a challenging yet very exciting and interesting task, they tend to scatter their interest and start doing several different things at the same time just because it’s fun. Before you even realize it, you are bouncing from one course to another without ever finding the main focus and working on one skill or task only. After all that buzz, you realize you haven’t really learned much. Even though it can be useful to possess multiple different skills, by jumping between 10 different courses and projects you risk making huge mistakes and not getting your job done in the end. This is a classic rookie mistake that you need to avoid.
If you scatter your lessons you will end up lacking structure and you’ll notice how you have multiple skills on an average level without being a pro at any of them. So, to avoid making this rookie mistake, you need to start learning strategically.
The first step is to sit down and write about why you want to learn a certain topic or acquire a specific skill. Then, you need to write down your goals and find the best route you can take to acquire the new skills and reach your goals. For example, you can pick a new skill that you want to acquire and perfect and set a time frame of about 2 months during which you will be acquiring this new skill and focusing only on this one new skill. Now, while you’re on this journey, you can write down any new skills and topics that may spark your interest, so that once you are done with this one you can move on to acquiring a new skill.
Also, don’t worry about missing out on anything. It is always better to focus on one topic or skill at a time. By keeping notes of all possible interests you have you will be able to get back to them once you are done with the skill you are currently acquiring. Sticking to one path will always be more beneficial in the end. It’s great that you feel excited about learning new things all the time, but you must know how to stay patient and strategic about the way you approach new skills if you want to accomplish something.
Mistake 3 – Assuming that you know Best
Lastly, this mistake is also often made in the field of UX design. This scenario can happen to anyone – You get an assigned task and somewhere in the back of your mind you tell yourself that your idea is ten times better. Sometimes, your idea may be better, but sometimes you may completely miss the mark. This is how you end up making a huge mistake.
So, we walk into tasks thinking that we know it all and we know better. As a new designer, you may even feel like you can pick up on certain areas that others can easily miss. While it may be fun to offer a new perspective, you need to be able to follow the instructions and complete the task as it is assigned.
This is why many Australian companies place such a huge value on feedback and directions given by clients. They are the ones who see the bigger picture after all. Trying to override their ideas is not the best choice to make.
Sometimes, listening to others and being open-minded about professional help in your field is not such a bad idea. Professional web design services in Sydney provided by reliable companies can help you get a better overview of your client’s ideas and how you can implement them in the best possible way. Just try to be open-minded and accepting of ideas other than your own and you might end up learning something new that you can use in future projects.
Conclusion
In conclusion, these three most common mistakes that can be found in UX design are usually rookie mistakes that can easily be avoided. This is how you can learn from them and improve your skills so that you don’t end up making these mistakes.