How do you reduce user errors and improve the product user experience?

User Errors Due to Device Size and Behavior Expectations

According to Mckinsey, The pandemic has sped up digital transformation by several years. Your customers use Apple, Google, and Netflix applications that look good and delight in user experience. Top-rated applications set up high expectations on usability. When your apps don't meet the customers' expectations, user errors occur. There are two essential things to consider: The size of the device and the behavior that comes with it. 

Map Customer Journey to Learn Customer Behavior

Product managers have to map the customer journey to understand what led them to use the app or visit the website. Analyzing that will help plan for product design to address their pain points, frustrations, and motivations. Depending on how users intend to use the application,  product managers may have to target specific device sizes, i.e., tablet or smartphone, PC, or larger screen. For example, if the target user may primarily sit but occasionally walk around with the device, a tablet is suitable. So the app needs to be designed for tablet size. If the phone app uses the same UI, the information displayed may be too small for a smartphone, and users may inadvertently tap on something they didn't intend. 

For use cases where users may always be on the go, the app or the website needs to work well on a smartphone. Design each task to specific to users' goals and show only the necessary information. For instance, as mentioned previously in interactive design (link), 49% of mobile users use their thumbs. They use their thumbs to interact with smartphones. This user behavior means users focus more on the natural touch zones (the bottom screen) and ease of reach. They expect frequently used click-to-actions at the bottom, where it is easy for thumbs to reach. While designing a wireframe that reflects these behaviors is essential for retaining users. 

Using the right size and understanding the correct behavior can benefit a product's results greatly. It ensures placement and arrangement will be easy. Users will be able to acknowledge that product developers are considering users. As a result, navigation will be more straightforward, and the product will gain users' trust.

Customers and Employees Benefit With The Right Size & Behavior 

Customers using the apps designed for their specific customer journey will often use the app, increasing engagement and NPS. Consumer usage is directly related to increased revenue and profits. On the employee-facing side, apps designed for their specific use case will improve their productivity and morale, reducing costs.

Read how we helped a retailer with employee productivity- 6x efficiency achieved

Where do you begin?

The best UX design starts with wireframing concepts based on user journeys and personas from UX research. For apps that need to support multiple device sizes, it is vital to design mobile-first, i.e., design for the mobile viewport. You then progressively add more information for tablet size, PC, and larger screen sizes as needed. If it's only one target device, then start with that specific device size. With wireframes showing the layout of UI elements, it also shows the structure of the screen size. Scaling the size of the wireframe is essential when developing a product. 

Read our success story -  UX research study closed a multimillion-dollar deal.

Visual Design

The visual design represents an essential function in achieving optimal visual hierarchy to highlight important elements and tone-down not as important ones. Device size is a significant factor in how UI needs to be designed to achieve that goal. As the device size increases, visual design becomes even more critical to present information with the correct visual hierarchy. Even the well-designed layout can look monotonous without proper visual hierarchy, and users may miss important details, leading to user errors. Learn more about the differences between UI and UX in our previous article.

Development

While developing for different sizes, current technology allows for showing or hiding certain elements depending on the device size. Designing for the target device enhances the user experience. Imagine a legacy PC application on the phone screen, maybe functional, but it will be error-prone.

Costs

Consider the costs stemming from customers leaving to competitors or decreased employee productivity. You can save capital by targeting the only device sizes that matter. If planned well, the suitable device size design can save money later if the product needs support for other devices. If you try that, the other way around will cost exponentially more. Products that don't consider these two factors when designing wireframes, visual design, or development can lead to poor user experience. It can result in users experiencing more errors in the final product. 

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Conclusion

Choosing the right device size for the customer journey can better a company’s product experience. For further information, you can contact Designial for application design using a fixed-price. Read more on our Digital Transformation and UX Design pages. Contact us to get started.