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UX Design Mistakes. Don’t hide the truth — users won’t take bad online times now. By 2025, with small focus times under eight secs (says Microsoft in 2023), UX design is no longer just “good to have”—it’s now key to making money. If you’re selling goods online or giving B2B SaaS, your look on the screen is now your number one sales guy. Even a small mess-up — a slow load, a hard-to-get design, a hidden call-to-action — might push possible buyers right to your rivals.
World data backs this up. A study by Forrester (2022) showed that for every £1 put into UX, you get back £100 on average. Yet, shockingly, many small firms and big brands still see UX just as a look, and not as a key part of the business. This oversight causes quiet but constant money loss—from left carts to lower overall value—all of which can be stopped by making good design choices.
Mistake #1 – Ignoring mobile-first design
If your site puts mobile second, you’re pushing half your visitors away right from the start. In the UK alone, more than 63% of all web visits now come from phones (StatCounter, 2024). Around the world, phone shopping is set to reach £4.1 trillion by 2025, making up nearly 75% of all online sales (eMarketer, 2024). Yet, many brands still plan for desktop first, adding phone use as a last minute thought — often with messed up designs, crowded text, or too-big pop-ups.
The effects are bad. Google info tells us that 53% of users leave a site if it loads too slow on phones—more than three seconds. Add hard-to-use menus or small buttons, and even more people go away. What’s more, bad phone speed hurts SEO ranks. This got worse when Google’s shift to mobile-first listing started in 2020.
Real-world losses from poor mobile usability
Let’s look at this the right way. A study in 2023 by Baymard Institute showed that on average, 85% leave their mobile carts, but only 68% do so on desktops. This big gap is mostly because the mobile checkout process can be hard to use. A UK clothes shop got 17% more sales from phones just by making their CTA buttons bigger and cutting out extra form fields.
The mind game here is easy: folks on phones have less time, use one hand, and face more things that pull their focus. They can’t stand any hassle. If a button is tricky to hit, a menu hard to find, or a form won’t fill itself, they won’t fuss — they’ll just leave.
Not thinking of mobile-first design is not just a bad design choice — it kills money quietly. Making things for mobile isn’t just making them smaller; it means rethinking the whole trip for small screens, touch use, and needs tied to the place.
Mistake #2 – Overcomplicating navigation
Ever gone to a website and just felt… sleepy? That’s not on you — it’s your mind dealing with too much stuff to think about. In UX design, this “stuff to think about” is called cognitive load. It’s how hard your brain has to work to use a site. When folks need to figure out tricky menus, make sense of unclear labels, or click again and again to get what they want, their brain works too hard — and not in a good way.
From a work view, this makes a big mess: your top stuff is lost, more people leave, and fewer people buy— all because users can’t find their way.
Mistake #3 – Sluggish load speeds
In digital UX, speed means trust. Every tiny bit of time matters. Research shows people judge your site in less than 50 milliseconds (Lindgaard et al., 2006), and if it takes over three seconds to show, 40% of them will leave (Akamai, 2023). This isn’t just a warning — it’s a big hit to your sales path.
The thinking is clear. When folks face delays, mainly when they’re not ready for them, they get real annoyed — just like feeling stuck in traffic or at a slow checkout line. Even worse, slow sites can make the brain react with stress (Doherty et al., 2015), even if folks don’t know it’s happening.
Speed isn’t just a “coder problem”. It’s a user problem that links right to your cash. Every added second costs — not in ways that are hard to see, but in real, solid sales.
Mistake #4 – Lack of visual hierarchy
Have you heard “design is how it works”? Visual hierarchy is just that. It mixes art and science to lead users through your content easily and smoothly. Without it, your message is just noise, no matter how great the content is.
Eye-tracking tests by Nielsen Norman Group (2023) tell us people read web pages in an F-shape: first left to right at the top, then down a bit and left to right again, before reading the left side from top to bottom. This shows how we look for value and order by nature. If your design doesn’t go with — or smartly break — this pattern, users might miss important stuff, not connect, and just leave.
Visual order uses size, color, contrast, space, and line-up to show what’s key. When it’s not there, users hit a mental block: they can’t tell where to look, what’s important, or what step to take next.
Mistake #5 – Inaccessible design
Many think accessibility is just to avoid legal issues — as if it is just a box to check. It is more than that; it leads to new money. More than 1 billion people in the world live with a disability, 14.6 million in the UK alone (ONS, 2023). This is not just a small group — it is a huge number of users, many left out due to bad UX choices.
From the mind’s view, being left out is not just a slight problem — it makes one feel unwanted. When a person sees weak color contrast, unclear buttons (“click here”), or hard-to-use menus (like hover-only types), it tells them: this site was not made for you. This does not just end a sale — it hurts your name.
Also, many things we use overlap with daily issues. For instance: a parent using one hand to feed a baby, or a person trying to use their phone on a loud train. Making things for all doesn’t kill fun ideas — it makes them work better for more people.
Mistake #6 – Weak CTAs and unclear microcopy
Design makes you stand out. Good words get you cash. But, many web stuff use lots of time on perfect looks but mess up when it’s time to act — with weak or dull calls-to-action. Lines like “Submit”, “Learn more”, or “Click here” don’t lead to action; they just name a button. But good microcopy helps change that— it gently moves people from doubt to action.
In the mind, good microcopy plays with hope, comfort, and clearness. Say, a CTA that says “Get my free quote” hits better and is more special than “Submit form”. One A/B test by Unbounce (2023) saw that changing “Start trial” to “Start my free trial” upped sign-ups by 31%.
Small text helps ease brain strain. Simple help notes under form fields (“We’ll keep your email safe”) cut worry. Short tips that show password rules as you type help more people finish forms. These little bits of info make users feel in the know, not fooled — and that grows trust.
Mistake #7 – Ignoring error states and feedback
Think about hitting “submit” on a form… and nothing happens. Or even worse, you see a red warning: “There was an error”. No more info, no help, just a stop. These small moments are really strong — not just because of the error, but how they make you feel: lost, unsure, and alone.
This is where lots of designs mess up. Error moments — like a failed log-in, no results in search, or a wrong email — are not rare. They are expected. Yet, they are often ignored in UI design. When people run into them, it breaks their thought flow — stopping their work and bringing in stress at a key choice time.
Design patterns that rebuild trust
Good UX sees mistakes coming — and makes them less hard. That’s why top web products use error times as chances to show care. Airbnb, for example, uses fun short text (“Looks like we’re all booked up!”) with useful other choices. Shopify leads users through form mistakes one step at a time, giving tips right there and fixing things itself. These aren’t just small things — they keep money from being lost.
Clear feedback keeps users from leaving by up to 22%, says a study by Baymard Institute (2023). That study also saw that 69% of users left their carts because forms were hard to get right or they got no “ok” note.
Here are some key ways to make sure you handle errors well:
– Inline checking (quick feedback as the user types)
– Clear error messages (“Your password needs at least one number”)
– Ways to fix errors (undo buttons, reset links, autosave alerts)
These tools make things easier, build trust, and help finish tasks. More so, they show the system works well — it’s quick, correct, and values the user’s time.
Trust in digital spaces is easy to break. One bad error can ruin many good experiences. Smart, people-focused responses make sure your users don’t feel stuck — and keep them moving forward with trust.
Mistake #8 – Not testing with real users
Too many tech teams make things that work for them. They think if it makes sense to them, it will work for the people who use it. But here’s the hard truth: you are not your user. What seems clear to you—the one who makes the product, sells it, or designs it—is often hard to get for someone new to your app or site.
The idea of “easy” design is tempting, but it’s not always true. What feels easy to you is because you know the story behind your product. Your users don’t know this story. That’s why testing how easy it is to use your stuff is still one of the best ways—yet not used enough—to make your product better.
The Nielsen Norman Group says that testing a site with just five people can find 85% of its use issues. Still, many companies don’t do this test at all. They count on guesswork, team comments, or data panels that tell only what users did, not why.
Mistake #9 – Prioritising aesthetics over function
It’s easy to fall for a pretty design — especially when you’ve put in much time, work, and money. But a nice look won’t help if it makes things hard, pulls focus, or stops users from doing what they came for. This is when the IKEA effect can sneak in: a mind trick where folks think highly of things if they made them, even with flaws (Norton et al., 2012). In UX, this means loving how a site looks but not seeing if it works well for users.
Cool moves, bold layouts, and big videos might get praise, yet they can make things slow: long waits to load, hard-to-use setups, or tough-to-read content forms. A 2024 NN/g study showed that too showy screens with unclear uses made sales fall by up to 37%, mainly on phones.
Good UX isn’t about taking away all the good looks — it’s about making sure each part has a use, helps with a job, or shows the way ahead well.
When “beautiful” kills conversion
There’s a big gap between just looking good and really getting your message across. A pretty contact form might wow those who know design — but it’s really hard for those with learning differences or those who use screen tools. A carousel on a main page can look great and show off products, but studies show just 1% click on the second item. So, it looks cool, but it doesn’t help much.
One UK store cut down the rate of folks leaving by 22% after it made its product pages simpler. It used fewer moving parts, clearer buttons, and better color differences — and still kept it looking fresh and together. What do we learn? Keeping it simple often works better than going over the top.
Design must always ask: Does this help users get what they came for – fast, easy, and sure? If no, it’s not design – it’s just for show.
How it looks should come after how it works. Why? Because when users find what they need – fast and without fuss – the beauty they recall is how smooth it all went.
UX isn’t an expense — it’s an accelerator
We might think UX is just “design” to fix later. But, as we’ve shown in these ten errors, UX is tied with every part of your work — from the first tap to the last sale. When UX feels bad, people don’t stay. They go, fast and in silence, taking their trust — and cash — with them.
On the other hand, when UX is clear, open, and gets how users feel, it does more than make things smooth — it makes things good. Buyers say yes quicker. They come back more. Help calls drop. And love for the brand builds. All because someone asked, “Is this right for the user?”
In a time when online moments are often your first—and only—link with people, UX design isn’t just an extra. It’s the quiet force that drives your growth, name, and money.
Next steps: From audit to optimisation
If you find these errors hit too close to home, know that you’re not by yourself — and it’s not too late. UX grows with each step. It’s built on tests, tips, and getting better all the time. Whether you have a small online store or lead a big tech service, even tiny tweaks — like changing a button’s text or a menu’s layout — can really make a difference.
Here’s where picking the right group changes everything. Dool Creative Agency uses deep knowing of behaviour, true science, and neat look to aid brands set up looks that are not just nice — they work great. From checks and plans to total makeovers, we shape online paths that seem smooth, earn trust, and make sales.
UX isn’t just about avoiding mistakes. It’s about creating digital moments that feel right — and make your users feel seen.
FAQs
What is the cost of bad UX design for a business?
Bad UX design can silently drain revenue through lost conversions, increased bounce rates, and poor customer retention. Studies show that businesses can lose up to 20% in potential sales due to usability issues, especially on mobile. Investing in UX design helps prevent these losses and improves ROI.
How can I tell if my website has UX problems?
Look for high bounce rates, low conversion rates, or high cart abandonment — especially on mobile. Usability testing, heatmaps, and session recordings can reveal where users struggle. A professional UX audit will highlight specific design flaws costing you revenue.
Why does mobile-first design matter so much?
In 2025, over 70% of web traffic comes from mobile devices, and mobile users expect fast, intuitive experiences. Websites that aren’t optimised for mobile often suffer from poor rankings, high exit rates, and lost revenue opportunities.
Are popups and dark patterns bad for user experience?
Yes — while popups and dark patterns may boost short-term metrics, they often harm long-term trust and user satisfaction. Ethical UX design focuses on clarity and respect, which leads to better brand loyalty and repeat conversions.
How often should I update or test my UX?
UX isn’t a one-off task. Regular testing — ideally quarterly or after major updates — ensures your site evolves with user expectations and market trends. Continuous optimisation based on feedback and data leads to better engagement and sustained growth.
