UX Design Mistakes That Kill Adoption

Why a Well Good Product does not mean the product will have Users

Most products fail, because users did not use them. NOT because the technology was Poor.

Companies spend large amounts of time/resources developing features, performance, and scalability; and yet they see no adoption which is usually characterized by users starting the product, using it for a brief period of time, and then not using it again (also called “churn”); and the company has flat-lined (no growth).

When you see this, nearly 100% of the time you can attribute the issue to UX Design– not to Marketing.

UX design determines if users:

• Know how to do things with your product
• Are able to quickly find a solution to their problem
• Are confident about using your product
• Will want to return and use it again

This guide will discuss the common UX design errors that prevent product adoption, provide reasoning as to why these errors occur and provide actionable solutions that UX Designers can implement (without building out features unnecessarily and bloating the product).

What is Adoption in terms of UX Design.

In terms of UX design adoption is NOT the same as a user registering or signing up.

TRUE adoption means:

• The user has completed all the main workflow steps within your application
• The user will return to YOUR application multiple times
• YOUR application is added to the user’s everyday processes
• The user will refer, recommend YOUR product to their friends

Adoption can be defined as follows:

Adoption of a product occurs when users experience the product as a valuable tool to assist them in accomplishing their jobs, and the product becomes a permanent addition to their lives.

Because of poor UX, even powerful and innovative products become useless; and the gap between usability and adoption is where a product dies.

VI. Five Most Common UX Design Errors

• Low customer activation
• High Dropoff Rate During Initial Onboarding (+ increase in support tickets)
• Increased Rate of Unsubscribe or Churn
• Increased Length of Time to Buy or Sales Cycle
• Negative Word-of-Mouth

Correcting User Experience After Launch Is Significantly More Costly than Correcting It Before Launching

Designing for Features (Mistake #1)

“Designing for Features” aka “Feature Driven Design” is one of the top ten UX Mistakes.
Most often, this mistake occurs because you are not creating your design around your users’ needs.
Symptoms of this mistake: Overcrowded interfaces, Confusing navigation, Too many choices being presented to the user at the same time, A lack of clarity surrounding the user’s required steps to take.

Users Don’t Care About Your Features, Only About the Results.

When designing an experience for your user where the user feels that completing the task is secondary to exposing the user to as many features as possible, your users will feel confused and will disengage from your experience.

How to Design for “User Jobs” vs. “User Features”

• Prioritize Your User’s Primary Job(s).
• Limit the Number of Choices Available to Your User.
• Provide Easy Access to Advanced Features.
• Be Selective with the Amount of Information Presented to Your User. Be Clear Over Complete.

Mistake #2 – Poor Onboarding/Inappropriate Expectation.

Onboarding is the first and most important User Experience.

Common Mistakes Made By Companies When Developing Onboarding Designs

• Lack of Guidance
• Too Many Tooltips
• Too Long of a Tour/Walkthrough Before Showing Value
• Too Much Information Requested from the User Early On

If Your User Does Not Begin Receiving Value Immediately, They Will Not Stick Around Long Enough to Learn.

Best Practices for Onboarding Design

• Show: Don’t Explain Through Instructions.
• Direct Users to Complete Their First Task Successfully.
• Reduce Friction in Creating the User Profile/Account.
• Allow Users to Explore the Application at Their Own Pace.

Effective Onboarding Fosters Confidence.

Mistake #3 – Ignoring the First-Time User Experience (FTUE)

Often UX is designed with the “existing” user in mind and ignores the needs of a new, first time, user. Designing for The Existing User Allows for the Following

• Assumed Knowledge
• Excessive Use of Jargon
• Unclear Language
• Lack of Context

What Seems Obvious to Your Firm Will Be Completely Invisible to First-Time Users.

Are you tired of giving your users too much information at once and having them stop processing all of that information?

Here are some examples of the common mistakes that people make in providing too much information to their users.

The following are some ideas on how to Coach the User on removing the Cognitive Overload and what to do or not to do.

• Utilise Progressive Disclosure (To Prevent Users from being Overwhelmed with too much Information), Create a Clear Visual Hierarchy, Place the Most Important Information First, Show the Users What is Necessary to Complete Their Task.
• The UX is more about how focused on the application you can be than about how many things are in the application.
• The UX is about the main goal of the application: helping the user to have as much success as possible in completing their tasks and not spend time making poor choices.

The last two sections of the UX provide information about user feedback and consistency of the UX.

Another thing you may want to keep in mind is that “UX creates a Trusting Experience Through Consistency”.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot of “UX Designers” that create UX for their companies rather than creating the UX for the user.

Additionally, the primary method for evaluating user behaviour is not through looking only at analytics.

Analytics will help you understand how people are using the product but do not explain why the user is doing what they are doing. Therefore, you need to have feedback from your users to validate your UX decision.

As a general rule, you will often find that the most “expensive” design will often not provide the user with the best experience.

Having an aesthetically pleasing design is not sufficient to deliver a good UX.

For example, some examples of negative impacts are extremely low contrast of user text, poorly designed buttons, hidden controls, and a lot of motion in the interface.

When implementing feedback into the UX process, it is necessary to establish clear processes and define when and how to request feedback.

Finally, with regard to how to give users error messages and feedback when something goes wrong, it is necessary to clearly state whether the error message is a technical error or a user

When the user experience (UX) is bad, the user experience leads to killing the emotional elements that convert and drive sales on a site be it a service or a product. Example would be: Errors on the site can lead to less trust in the site.

The failure to provide good UX for errors is defined by:

• A General Lack of Contextual Understanding
• Failure to provide Recovery Steps via a Web Resource
• Failure to Communicate Clear Expectations
• Failure to Own User Responsibilities
• The best example of a well-designed error state:
• Clearly explains the issue
• Details how to correct the problem
• Minimalize user frustration
• Retain user’s trust as committed to helping

UX Mistake #9. Designing for the “Average” User

There is no such thing as an average user.

When designing for all users, the result is:

• Generic Streams of Task and Flow
• Over Complicated User Interfaces
• Loss of Usability
• Good UX design should be focused on the following:
• To a single primary user persona
• To a single key use case
• To a single key Workflow

Product adoption will be greater when depth of understanding is achieved versus breadth of understanding.

UX Mistake #10. UX Performance and Responsiveness Consideration

UX is about more than just visual elements, it is also a function of how you experience it (UX).

Slow site load speeds, lag between user actions and system responses and interfaces not responding to user input:

• Interfere with user flow(s).
• Degrade users’ level of trust.
• Increase abandonment rates of site users.

When looking at the UX, speed of transactions is directly tied to how users experience the product or service.

The faster the product functions, the easier it feels to use even though it is not easier to use.

UX Mistake #11. Putting Too Much Thinking Required for Users

Any pause that a user takes to think about what to do next is an indication of a failure in the user’s experience. The barriers of entry for becoming a purchaser increase.

The primary reasons for users pausing are:

• Ambiguous CTA labels.
• Ambiguous CTA Status.
• Complex Processes.
• System Status is difficult for users to see.

The best possible user experience is to reduce how much thought is needed by the user.

When a user has to stop and think about what they need to do next increases the rates of product adoption.

UX Mistake #12. UX is a One Time Event.

UX is not finished, nor is it complete in a specific time frame.

That products evolve, users evolve and contexts change.

When you treat UX like it is a One Time Event or a Pre-Development Design Sprint, you are on the path to designing a product that has a Low Adoption Rate.

High Adoption Rate products see UX as a Continuous Activity.

How Excellent UX Design Promotes Adoption (When Done Correctly)

The most successful designs enable users to get value from the product more quickly, allow for reduced amounts of support needed, enable a higher retention rate, encourage referrals from existing users, provide user-generated revenue (no advertising), and most importantly, companies that incorporate excellent UX design within their strategy will eventually generate organic revenue.

UX design should not be considered “decorative”; instead, it is a tool that will ultimately create growth.

Practical UX Adoption Checklist

Before shipping, ask yourself:

• Will first-time users have success without receiving instructions?
• Is the primary action clear?
• Does the interface decrease cognitive overload for the user?
• Are mistakes easy to identify and recover from?
• Does the user perceive performance to be fast and responsive?

If you answered “No” to any of the above questions, then you run a high risk of users adopting your product.

UX Design across Product Types

SaaS Products: The UX framework for SaaS Products is to focus on the activation and retention stages. Therefore, reduce onboarding friction and continue to emphasize the daily benefits (recurring value).

Enterprise Software Inside the UX framework for Enterprise Software, clarity and consistency are the priorities, and the goal is to eliminate the need for extensive training while gracefully supporting complex workflows.

Consumer Apps: The UX framework for Consumer Apps is to optimize all aspects of their designs for speed and emotion. Eliminate friction and continually encourage users to form habits around using the apps.

The definition of User Experience does not change based upon the product. While context plays a role, core principles remain the same.

In conclusion, UX Design is ultimately an Adoption Design.

Users adopt a product for the reasons below:

• It makes sense to them
• It appears easy to use
• They are able to gain value from it in a short amount of time
• It respects their time

Every decision made in the UX Design stage either helps or hinders the adoption of the product. Companies that treat UX design as an essential part of their strategy build products that their users want to use.

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