UI mistakes
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Lack of consistency in-app UI elements
Consistency makes for a good mobile app. The colors you use, the fonts you incorporate, and the button shapes and icons you choose should all come together as a cohesive unit. But inconsistency in the form of button shapes, title character length, header & footer placement, dividers, alignment, etc., are widespread errors that designers make. Make sure you select and follow a specific theme when designing the app. Line thickness, element placement & shape etc. should be the same across pages.
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No differentiation between primary and secondary actions
Since mobile screens have limited space to display important app content, you’ll need to distinguish between primary actions and secondary actions. For example, on the home page, the Login button is more important than the Password Reset button. That’s why you need to create a distinction between these two buttons.
For the primary action of Login, the button needs to be larger and darker. For the secondary action of password reset, the button should be smaller and lighter since not everyone will use it. But some designers fail to do this and create similar-looking buttons that can confuse app users.
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Poor mobile-optimization for text & graphics
One of the most common UI mistakes is bad optimization for text and graphics. Alignment & hierarchy of the text boxes, placement of images & videos, location of forms, and CTA are often not modified to fit the smaller mobile screens. This can make the browsing experience terrible for the app user.
Mobile app designers need to consider the device specifications – also the dimensions of specific brands – when designing the mobile app.
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Tiny touch targets
Touch targets like buttons, CTA links, and icons are among the most important elements in any mobile app. But, to cram in too many elements onto the app, designers often compromise on the size and visibility of the touch target.
Making touch targets too small can result in the user touching the wrong target or failing to click on the target at all. This can be extremely frustrating for the user and may prevent them from staying on the app.
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Poor choice of icons
Icons are the best substitute for long, drawn-out text. Often, designers make abysmal choices regarding the type, shape, size, color, and placement of their icons. Either the icons will be too plain, or they’ll be overly decorative. This can make for a confusing user experience since your users may not understand what the icon is for.
Using clearly-understandable icons that have consistent design rules is a must.
UX mistakes
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Lack of app compatibility with device & other apps
Factors like app installation, initialization, running, and updates all depend on the app’s compatibility with the phone. An incompatible phone can create a lot of problems with the way the app functions. Similarly, other apps can also interfere with the way the app works. Unfortunately, quite a few developers fail to consider phone and app compatibility.
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Absence of a tutorial
In-app tutorials make for an amazing user experience. They tell the user what each app element stands for, how to use the app and where to seek assistance from. But there are many apps that come without tutorials, which make them difficult to use. A first-time user may be confused or frustrated because of their limited knowledge of the app’s functioning, and they may choose to forego your mobile app for a friendlier one.
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Extremely loaded interface
Even if smartphones with larger screens give you more space to display more content, including too many UI elements on the screen can make your mobile app look cramped and tiring to the eyes.
But this is what a lot of developers do. They include too many buttons, too many graphics, too many text boxes, too many icons, and too many drop-down menus on the page. This can make for a very confusing and uncomfortable user experience. Your users won’t know what they need to see and where they need to go when using the app.
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In-app navigation errors
Navigation is one of the defining features of your app’s UX. But navigation is where most developers go wrong.
Providing too many navigation options on the drop-down menu, providing too few navigation options, tucking-away the search box or the back button in a corner, including conflicting navigation settings on the screen, using strange icons or buttons to represent actions/pages, not including a site map on the website … these are just a few of the many navigation mistakes that developers can make.
Together, these can make your mobile app very messy and taxing to use.
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Delayed or absent app updates
Finally, the job of every developer is to ensure that the mobile app provides optimal performance and does not have any bugs. The only way to do this is to give regular updates. But developers often fail to consider apps as “works-in-progress.” They don’t spend time reviewing the app and updating it, and they don’t actively address user complaints.
This can be extremely disheartening to users. By not providing regular updates, you’ll be actively discouraging your users from using your app and recommending it to others.
