Introduction
User Experience (UX) is the recognisable, subjective experience users have when interacting with a company's interface. It is all about foreseeing and satisfying consumers' demands in a way that enables them to interact with a product naturally. In the same way, UX design focuses on analysing user activity and motives in order to create a better online experience. Most likely, if you own a firm, you require design frequently.
Let’s just understand the need and value of UX this way- When we shop for shoes or footwear, before analysing its quality, we go for looks, right? You first pick a pair of shoes based on how they look and then check if it is worth buying. Similarly, when a web user clicks on a link, they make a judgement of your design, before exploring your products. Within the 20s website, visitors make an opinion on the brand and the website as per their research.
A good design will aid in the expansion of your company. Research shows that the design of a website accounts for 28–94% of users' first perceptions. Customers prioritise uncomplicated website designs by a proportion of 41% to 59% overall. So good UX design always matters a lot regardless of brand or business. But How could you distinguish between good design vs bad design?
What makes a good design?
User engagement: Solid user comprehension is the foundation of excellent design. Reliable user engagement fosters trust. Customers shouldn't experience any unexpected system errors or crashes since any unforeseen issues they encounter while using your product will make them wonder if they can rely on it in the long run.
Desirability - good design example: When a product is desirable, it moves from the "I need this product" stage to the "I want this product" stage and becomes a status symbol. Desirability is frequently assessed based on how we view products.
Simple and relevant: A good user experience talks to the user in a language they can comprehend and act upon. Very specialised programmes are frequently prone to utilise extremely technical language that may only be understood by experts. Good UX design aims to produce experiences that are simple to use and enjoyable for consumers to interact with.
Customer relationship: A great method to communicate your brand's mission to the world is by demonstrating an emotional and impactful connection through your brand's visual representation. Your UX design should reflect the values your brand will offer to users. Customers frequently have an emotional connection to a brand since customer interactions are based on emotion. The basis for creating that emotional connection is good design. More than 94% of website visitors make their decision to navigate and explore the website further after first looking at the website design. So, showcasing what your brand stands for and what your customers expect in the design can make or lose a customer for your brand.
Good UX design examples
The user experience design that drives the success of companies like Amazon, Google, and Apple is something that their rivals must imitate if they hope to compete with them and demonstrate their expertise in building a good UX design.
Apple: The product comparison page on the apple website is a great illustration of a user experience that benefits users. Comparison shopping is especially useful for pricey, complex products, and Apple gives users the tools to do it fast and effectively.
Amazon: You can quickly explore the app and find the products you're looking for, which is one of the key aspects of Amazon's UI UX design. A huge e-commerce site like Amazon, which sells millions of products, has to include a multi-access navigation option. Let's say you were unable to find something you liked. By giving you a list of related products to your search, Amazon will help you solve your issue. This one method of good UX example not only makes it simple for a user to find things but also encourages the user to make more purchases.
What makes a bad design?
Any UX design that makes it challenging, complicated, or frustrating for the user to interact with it is an example of a subpar UX. Complex customer flow, poor usability or accessibility, disregard for design principles, or lack of explicitness, bad UX can be caused by a variety of mistakes.
Complicated UX design: Every design should be simple to understand. You can immediately categorise a landing page as having a bad design if it lacks a call-to-action or has a dense block of unreadable text. Bad graphic design can be distinguished by its clutter and intrusion. Our attention spans are getting shorter; therefore, if your design isn't immediately evident, most of your audience will go.
Lack of communication - bad design example: When visitors come to your website, they are doing so intending to engage with your brand directly and personally. On your website, communication shouldn't be a one-way street. In actuality, it ought to be a conversation between you and your target audience. A lack of conversation might ruin the user experience.
Creating a sales mindset: Don't bombard visitors with sales pitches throughout your website. The user experience will be subpar if you do this. In essence, what you're doing is creating a website for the user. The website must make the user feel as though their requirements are its only priority and that of no one else. If your strategy is "sales," you cannot accomplish this. Consider the website as a service you are providing to users. Also, they must enjoy the entire process of using the product.
Ambiguous features: Users should not consider "How to use it," "what would happen if they click this button," or "When they are going to use a specific feature" when looking at your product; if they do, you should be aware that it has nebulous functionality. A feature is too ambiguous if consumers won't comprehend what it's for and how to use it.
Bad UX design examples
Google’s data studio: In contrast to their usual clear and organised product tours, Google's onboarding training for Data Studio produced a rather distracting website. The lack of direction on the page is disorienting. Novice users eventually find themselves unsure of where to begin, where to search first, and where to go next.
Wynk music: An internet music streaming app is Wynk Music, which is a bad UX design example. Users can add specific songs to the queue, but they cannot remove certain songs from the queue. The user's sole choice is to delete every song from the queue, which makes the design poor because it is both cumbersome and useless for the user.
Ryanair booking: The booking platform for Ryanair is one of the worst bad UX examples since it tricks and perplexes consumers into choosing some alternatives over others. The primary goal of doing this is to assist in increasing revenue for the business. Instead of being a straightforward process that you enjoy, it makes the user flow a challenging path.
WhatsApp’s Delete Message feature: You might have deleted a message on WhatsApp, there are three options- Delete for me, delete for everyone, and cancel. If you click on delete for everyone, it displays “You deleted this message”. Users often complain that why other people have to know you deleted the message, what’s the point if they already know you deleted it? This creates a bad impact on users and frustrated UX design for them.
Comparison of Good and Bad Designs
Good designBad designA good UX design is simple to use and intuitive.It might be challenging and frustrating to use a bad UX design.Good design highlights a product's usefulness while ignoring everything that can potentially take away from it.
A bad design is difficult to understand, distracting, challenging to use, and of limited duration.
It should feel familiar to visitors even if they are visiting your website for the first time.The complexity of the website will make it challenging for users to grasp. The visitor won't be sure of where to proceed next.The good user interfaces will guide users from point A to point B, guiding them towards their ultimate goal of purchasing your goods.
Pages will have inconsistent designs and confuse users. No audience is clearly defined as the website's intended audience.
Conclusion
Each user's experience is unique, and meticulous UX design patterns will undoubtedly benefit from a deeper grasp of human psychology. Make sure you're customising the experience for each of your consumers to create a unique UX. Therefore, having taken a close look at good design vs bad design examples, you are now equipped with a clear understanding of what a subpar design might resemble. Avoid making these errors when designing a product, as they may irritate customers and ultimately harm your business.