Figma itself is a pretty well-rounded tool used by the majority of pros in the design industry, but it doesn’t have everything (looking at you, spellcheck). To make up for the gaps, we use several Figma plugins to make using the software just a bit easier.

Straight from our UX design team, we’ve identified eight incredibly useful Figma plugins that we use on a daily basis.

1: SkewDat

SkewDat is a neat little tool that gives designers the surprisingly useful ability to skew just about everything on a Figma design in real time. Bring depth to your designs to enhance your project, and SkewDat lets you do this without stressing about the small details.

One, two, maybe nine layers need to be skewed to present? Not a problem. Lean on this plugin to do the heavy lifting, and you’ll do the rest.

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2: Contrast

Contrast serves an important role in ensuring a design looks good no matter what display it’s on. This Figma plugin allows professional designers to double-check one key element with relative ease – accessibility.

You’ll need to manage:

• Text size under 18.66px having a minimum contrast of 4.5:1 - 7:1 contrast ratio.
• Text size over 18.66px having a minimum contrast ratio of 3:1.
• Background elements having a contrasting ratio of 3:1.

It can be a designer’s nightmare getting the contrast just right, but the Contrast Figma accessibility plugin takes some of that headache away by showing you exactly what you need to know, when you need to know it.

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3: TextCutter

Optimize your design workflow by automatically cutting the amount of text you have per line. You can join or split text at any time using this plugin, or assign it to a hotkey and make your work that much more efficient. Take ownership back in your designs by limiting exactly how much text goes where.

Imagine if it takes you 10 seconds to adjust the text on a line. Doesn’t sound like a lot, right? Well, that time adds up. This plugin does a great job of cutting down on excess time and reducing the amount of re-work you might end up doing otherwise.

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4: Aninix

Animations are made easy using Aninix, and our UX design team uses this to effectively create animations in Figma files. While it is in a beta state at the moment, it’s still extremely adaptable and gives you access to intricate keyframes alongside other animation staples.

The intuitive interface allows pretty much anyone to create a complex animation in a Figma file without the hassle.

The best part is, when you’re done you can directly export your files to .lottie, .mp4, .webm, or .gif to streamline your exports.

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5: UI Faces

UI Faces makes it a tad more simple to sympathize with the users you’re designing for. The reason being, it grabs a photo based on the various parameters you set. Use it as a profile placeholder, or simply have it to the side. This way, you can put a face to a list of design necessities. Take the guesswork out of the equation with UI Faces.

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6. Table Creator

This one is pretty self-explanatory at first, but deep down it’s really a complex organization of systems that work in tandem to… create tables. Really, though, this plugin is a no-brainer addition to Figma that seems like it should just exist naturally.

Just insert the parameters you need and this plugin will output a table that’s 100% customizable for anything you’d need. Time-saving and efficient, we’re all about it.

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7. Charts

Another straightforward plugin, Charts does just what it says it does. It can put out either an area, line, pie, scatter, bar, or really any other chart you might need for a design. Configure your mix/max values and set up each chart exactly how you want. 

It’s an efficient way to make your designs pop out that much more without designing a chart from scratch.

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8. Restore Image Dimensions

Saving the best for last, this comes in handy when in a pinch. After you crop or resize an image, just run this plugin and your image is right back to normal. The best part is, you can select multiple objects and have them restored all at once.

Great for those exploratory moments that don’t go according to plan. Can’t get a social media graphic in just the right place? Not a problem, this Figma plugin is in your corner.

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Looking For More Help With Designing Digital Products?

There are thousands of Figma plugins to choose from, and you’re more than welcome to explore to find what works for you. Managing your time can make or break a project in the long run. These eight tried-and-true Figma plugins are just a few that our professional design team uses to design, prototype, and create your digital product’s fresh look.

Want more info on how we do things? Drop us a line and we’ll work alongside you to polish your project.

Need your site analyzed? Our researchers are on top of it. Maybe you just want to rebrand your site? Our designers have your back. Anything from the front end to the back end, we can swing in anytime.

Remember, it’s a jungle out there and CreateApe can be your guide.

There are awesome UX design examples all over the internet, but we’re here to show you WHY they’re great!

If you’re familiar with UX or not, it still has a big impact on the success or failure of your site. It’s not just about bringing in new users—but also showing them around your site and keeping them coming back for more.

So, What Makes a Good UX Design?

A successful UX design usually has these three things in common:

• Simple-A clean, clutter-free design helps the user focus on their goals.
• Intuitive-Anticipate what the user needs and how you can help them.
• Effortless-Because the user WILL remember how easy or hard it was to use your site

And Why is it Important?

The proof is in the pudding (or, more accurately, this stats blog from websitebuilder.org).

• Intentional UX design can boost your conversion rates by as much as 400%.
• 61% of users will flock to your competitors if they can’t find what they’re looking for quickly.
• 74% of users are likely to return to a mobile-friendly website and 67% are more likely to make a purchase.
• AND MOST IMPORTANTLY—only 55% of companies conduct user testing (where 85% of usability issues are found).

Basically, UX design (when it’s done right) gives you an excellent leg-up on your competition. Always put yourself in the user’s shoes to figure out the best way to get them from point A to point B.

Our UX design examples will show you the basics of how CreateApe guarantees a great user experience and how you can do something similar for your site.

Get Inspired by our Top 8 UX Design Examples

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Help the user QUICKLY find what they’re looking for

What’s the main goal of someone visiting a commercial real estate website? If you said “To search for available properties,” then we’re on the same page!

This design for Matthews Real Estate leaves no room for ambiguity. The messaging is clear, and it’s the first thing you see when you open the page. 

We also satisfy two different users in one toggle switch. This lets the user view properties for sale or for lease.

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• Satisfy the user’s search intent right away
• Make sure your message is clear and to the point
• Throw out anything that may confuse or distract the user

View Web Development Case Study

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Show the user you care

Empathizing with your user means understanding who they are, why they’re visiting your site, and how they’re feeling. 

Seeking treatment for an eating disorder is scary and stressful for patients and family members alike. That’s why we wanted Alsana’s site to be as inviting as possible.

The purpose of Alsana’s website is to inspire hope for recovery instead of selling treatment plans. Because it's paired with seamless navigation, the user feels less anxiety while finding help.

• Show the user that you’re there to help
• Think about what kind of visuals and features
• Make navigation as simple as possible

View Web Design Case Study

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Make a tedious task quick and easy

Do you hate scheduling doctor visits as much as we do? Create an effortless way for your patients to book appointments again and again.

We designed an appointment portal with a short and sweet form for Perpetual Motion Physical Therapy. This takes away the burden from the patient while helping the client pull in new users.

We also went the extra mile and added a page of accepted insurance plans. This lets the user know they're covered before they even have to ask.

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• Answer the user’s questions before they have to ask
• Make a dull task straightforward and painless
• Only ask for necessary information in your forms

View Web Design Case Study

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Create some unique features

Stand out from your competitors by including a unique website feature that helps users achieve their goals.

Think about how you can make your services more convenient for the user. Medikeeper creates products for employee wellness, so how could they help businesses keep track of employee wellness through COVID-19? By developing a handy virtual screening app!

Having a great idea is just the first step. The best UX design examples need to be as easy to use as they are innovative and timely.

We designed a streamlined survey with friendly illustrations to check for symptoms and give the user suggestions for the next steps if they are at risk.

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• Ask yourself: What do you offer that your competitors don’t?
• Help the user accomplish their goal in a unique way
• Create solutions that benefit the user long-term

View Mobile Design Case Study

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Get to know your user through your onboarding experience

Personalization is huge in UX design because it shows the user that you’ll give them a great experience by tailoring your solutions to their individual needs.

The onboarding process is crucial in creating personalized experiences—but instead of setting up a profile for your user, treat onboarding as an opportunity to get to know them!

Onboarding is especially important when creating e-learning platforms like Wurrly.edu. Here, we built the user’s dashboard around the information they gave us during the onboarding process. This is so we can show the content most relevant to their needs first.

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• Do plenty of research to understand your users
• Ask the right questions to show that you care
• Incorporate their feedback into the design to show that you listen

View Web Design Case Study

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Take your website on-the-go

Making your website mobile-friendly is more than just copy/pasting your site on a phone screen.

A smaller screen means less space and less time to meet the user's needs. To make your mobile experience as strong as the web, restructure your content to show the most important things right away!

Think of your mobile design as a hierarchy. Ask yourself, “What is the main reason a user would come to my website?” Now, make that the first thing they see and make it fit into a smaller space.

This UX design example for Viesso puts the user’s needs front and center. They should be able to understand what your site is all about right away.

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• Resize your design to fit a phone screen
• Make sure your user sees the most important things first
• Check out our blog for more Mobile Design Tips

View Web and Mobile Design Case Study

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Keep it simple, stupid!

Minimalism will probably never go out of style (at least in UX design).

Just because a design is simple doesn’t mean it has to be boring. In fact, with an uncomplicated design, it’ll be easier to communicate with your user and help them solve their problems.

Looking at these UX design examples from Soleo Communications, you can see that a crisp, white background goes a long way. It’s an easy way to group things together and helps your secondary colors (accents and CTAs) pop!

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• As always, keep your design as clutter-free as possible
• Use minimalism to create an effortless, but sophisticated look
• Prioritize the user’s needs over a complex design

View Web Design Case Study

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That being said…don’t neglect visuals

Every design choice you make should have meaning behind it—to help the user solve a problem. But that doesn’t mean “don’t be creative.”

UX and UI go hand in hand because they cover everything the user interacts with on a website. When your design is both usable and good-looking, you create a lasting impression with your user while giving your brand a chance to shine.

Once you have a solid navigational experience in place, ramp up your design with interesting content, original iconography, and maybe some fun animations!

• Remember: The best UX design examples are as on-brand as they are easy to use
• Build out a solid flow first, then design around it
• Get creative with your use of color and typography to make your brand stand out

View Web Design Case Study

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So, What Did We Learn from These UX Design Examples?

Web design trends will come and go, but UX is here to stay. By empathizing with the user and designing FOR them, we can help them solve their problems and build trust—which is good for your business, too!

Following these UX design examples will help you create a memorable experience that your users won't soon forget!

Need some help improving your user experience? Check out our web design and development services to see how CreateApe can help.

AI tools for UX/UI designers…friend or foe?

Like it or not, AI is here to stay. But we have a long, LONG way to go before its creative-thinking skills are on par with a UX designer. Hopefully, we’ll never experience the dystopian nightmare that is autonomous AI.

But what do we do until then? Embrace the change!

AI had a significant impact on employee productivity in the last few years. This LinkedIn article estimates that strategic AI implementation has cut operational costs by 30% through task automation and boosted overall efficiency by 40%.

Do you know what that means for creatives like us? More energy to focus on pushing the envelope with our designs!

But reducing the time we spend on tedious tasks isn’t the only benefit. With the right systems and prompts, these AI tools for UX/UI designers can help us streamline workflows, generate new ideas, and curb the brain blocks and burnout synonymous with our field.

Our Top 8 AI Tools For UX/UI Designers:

• Midjourney
• Builder.io
• Adobe Firefly
• Uizard
• Khroma
• Resemble.ai
• ChatGPT
• Poised
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Mastering AI As A Digital Product Designer

We know what you’re thinking…”Why should I work AI into my design process when I’M the one with creative capabilities?”

At this point, you may have dealt with a client or a stakeholder that would rather cut costs and let AI do all the heavy lifting. You may be tired of having your skills undervalued in comparison. But truth be told, AI is only as good as the person entering the prompts.

AI relies on user input to gather information, spit out results, and refine based on feedback (find out more about how it works in our “Will AI Replace UX Designers” blog).

In short, a UX designer needs to tell the AI what the users are looking for through our research and findings for it to generate workable solutions.

With all the different platforms designed for information architecture, art direction, coding, and writing, all the tools to become a more well-rounded designer are at your fingertips. But it needs YOUR creative direction to produce your unique product vision.

By learning how to talk to the AI and influence the right response, you can drastically reduce the time it takes to ideate and consider some options you haven’t even thought of. Plus, mastering these systems can help you fill gaps in your skill set and create a fully-realized product to present to your clients.

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8 AI Tools Every UX/UI Designer Should Try At Least Once

We’ve talked up AI a lot in this blog and previous ones, but we haven’t touched on specific tools we use here at CreateApe and would recommend to other UX Designers.

These are just a few of our favorites. Keep in mind that AI is still in its infancy, and some of these products may not work perfectly the first couple of times. Or you may find another system that serves the same purpose but fits better into your workflow.

The trick is to keep an open mind and play around with different tools until you find one that works best for you (or until you can guide it into giving you the results you want). Also, with new AI tools for UX/UI designers releasing frequently, keep your ear to the ground for the latest advancements!

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Midjourney

• The Value: “Create awe-inspiring masterpieces effortlessly and explore the endless possibilities of AI-generated art. Enter a prompt, choose a style, and watch Imagine - AI art generator bring your ideas to life!”

• Why We Use It: AI art has been controversial since its inception. At this point, their systems have received thousands of prompts related to our clients’ purposes (patients at a doctor’s office, someone using a beauty or personal care product, and so on).
  
  Instead of relying on Midjourney to create finished UI designs and branding assets, we use it to guide and refine our art direction, messaging, and information architecture as we go. By leveraging and expanding on Midjourney’s suggestions, we can gather more ideas and iterate until we land on something unique to our client’s brand.
  
• Pros: Midjourney’s text-to-image generator is especially impressive. With this feature, you can provide more detail outside of the subject and color palettes to try out different art styles (minimalist, corporate illustrations, charcoal, ink drawings, etc).
  
  Though Midjourney is still in beta testing, they’re working on adding features similar to Photoshop (inpainting, background replacement, image expansion, and more). These are sure to be a game changer in the design world.

• Cons: Outside of some wonky-looking hands? Well, there are a few minor ones. Midjourney isn’t free to use anymore due to people abusing the system. And the only way you can access it is through a Discord server.
  
  The server gets crowded due to having so many users. But if you sign up for the pro plan, you can send your prompts to Midjourney’s Discord bot via private messages. Check out this article from zapier.com on how to use Midjourney through Discord.
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Builder.io

• The Value: “Eliminate long backlogs and missed deadlines. Leverage our Visual Headless CMS to visually build and optimize web and mobile experiences on your existing sites and apps to move faster, together.”

• Why We Use It: In a perfect world, every designer would understand coding to make the product behave as envisioned. We can’t all be cross-functional experts, but tools like builder.io get us a little closer.
  
  With this plug-and-play system, our designers can create API-based infrastructures for their work native to whatever code stack they’re using. Plus, with their handy dandy Figma plugin, we can import our designs, and the AI reads and rearranges the layers.

• Pros: With builder.io, building a fully customized site (from designs to interactions) is as easy as using something like Squarespace. The platform enables us to use our client’s existing data (like product catalogs or customer databases) and create building blocks to drag and drop data into a dynamic interface.
  
• Cons: Depending on who you ask, this could be a pro or a con. Builder.io doesn’t eliminate the need for a front and back-end development team. You may still need a consultant to come in and help with integrating and styling components, especially if you don’t consider yourself super tech-savvy.
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Adobe Firefly

• The Value: “Experiment, imagine, and create an infinite range of images with Firefly, generative AI-powered content creation from Adobe.”

• Why We Use It: Powered by Adobe (of Photoshop and InDesign fame), Firefly is a robust generative AI tool that behaves similarly to Midjourney. However, Firefly has more bells and whistles like generative fills, text effects, recoloring, and 3D image building.
  
  This system is hugely helpful for our designers proficient in Adobe Suite (which is most of us). Firefly allows us to download whatever we create in the app and upload it to other Creative Cloud tools to continue editing and refining.

• Pros: Firefly pulls from a huge library of public domain content (stock images, videos, and graphic designs) to ensure the legal use of each designer’s creation. While some might see this as limiting, we’d rather be safe than sorry with copyright infringement.
  
  But that’s not the only reason we love this creator-first platform! Adobe is actively pushing for ethical standards around AI artwork and working on compensation plans for stock contributors. As AI evolves, we’re happy to put our ball in their court.
  
• Cons: Firefly’s AI algorithm doesn’t pull results from other users’ results. It only goes off your input. Adobe structured it this way to protect artists from infringement and unintentional plagiarism, but the results won’t be as varied as Midjourney’s. However, you can rest assured that whatever you create is yours alone.
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Uizard

• The Value: “Design stunning prototypes in minutes. The world’s easiest-to-use design and ideation tool — powered by AI. No design experience required!”

• Why We Use It: If any AI tool is coming for our gigs, it’s Uizard. It’s a powerful tool that automates the entire digital product design process from wireframing to prototypes. With a few simple text prompts or even a sketch upload, Uizard generates fully designed screens and flows for your team to improve on.
  
  With Uizard, all you really need is an idea. The platform has several ready-made templates for wireframes, landing pages, apps, and component libraries to help turn concepts into fleshed-out products.

• Pros: Each of these platforms claim that the possibilities are endless with AI, but it’s especially true with Uizard. From text-to-mockup UI generation to turning sketches and screenshots into editable designs, Uizard can potentially cut down the product design process from years to months (or even months to weeks).

• Cons: AI tools (even one as revolutionary as Uizard) lack the user empathy capabilities of a living, breathing human. You can upload sketches or take screenshots of your favorite products all day, but it still can’t guarantee all the features or functionalities that suit your target user.
  
  Treat a product like Uizard as just a jumping-off point instead of a fix-it-and-forget-it solution. Let the AI generate the blueprint for your product, then massage it to make room for content the user needs to accomplish their goals.
  
  And it also goes without saying…TEST IT!
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Khroma

• The Value: “Khroma uses AI to learn which colors you like and creates limitless palettes for you to discover, search, and save.”

• Why We Use It: So many brands are instantly recognizable through their color palettes, so picking the right ones is a daunting task for designers and stakeholders. Khroma streamlines that process by having you choose 50 options from its massive library — and based on your selection, its neural network generates palettes, typography, or gradients.

• Pros: Out of all the platforms we’ve talked about so far, Khroma is by far the easiest to use (you don’t even have to create an account). The process can be lengthy since there are so many options, but it’s a fun exercise to try in either a client meeting or a brainstorming session.
  
• Cons: There aren’t a whole lot of downsides to Khroma. However, it’s not the best platform for real-time collaboration since your data is only saved locally on the browser and device you use. But you can download your data and re-upload it to another device.
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Resemble.ai

• The Value: “Resemble’s AI voice generator lets you create realistic human-like voice-overs in seconds.”

• Why We Use It: We know users absorb information better through videos. But there’s not always room in the timeline or budget to hire a voice actor and have them record explainer videos. That’s where resemble.ai comes in.
  
  Whether you want to use your voice or a pre-recorded one from their community, resemble’s algorithm adds enhancements, emphasis, and emotions to the right words to create a personable voice-over that speaks to your target audience.

• Pros: Resemble thinks outside of the box with AI voice-over features. Outside of turning your script into the voice of your target user, the platform also has localization features to translate speech into different languages — a huge plus if you have a large international audience.
  
  Whether you want to use your voice or a pre-recorded one from their community, resemble’s algorithm adds enhancements, emphasis, and emotions to the right words to create a personable voice-over that speaks to your target audience.

• Cons: This con is less about Resemble and more about voice AI in general. All AI platforms are subject to misuse. So if you’re uploading your voice, proceed with caution.
  
  This is likely to create more trouble for public figures (and users wanting to appropriate their voices and likeness). Just be aware of any legal repercussions arising from voice AI platforms.
  
  In short, we know you want Morgan Freeman to narrate your product, but we don’t recommend using AI to make that a reality.
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ChatGPT

• The Value: “We’ve trained a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”

• Why We Use It: ChatGPT has taken the creative world by storm for better or worse. We could talk all day about the ramifications of this system on our news and entertainment. But for now, we’ll focus on the potential benefits of this AI tool for UX/UI designers.
  
  Many designers struggle with creating messaging that amplifies their visuals and the brand’s personality. With a suggestive prompt, ChatGPT generates content that expands on ideas or shaves them down to fit the allotted space in the design.
  
  Since ChatGPT’s model is conversational, you can continue training the algorithm if you’re not fully satisfied with the results. Drop in your commands to shorten the copy or tweak the voice and tone so the system gives you exactly what you need.

• Pros: Messaging is extremely important in engaging your target audience — it needs to be just as strong (if not stronger than) the visual components in your product to encourage repeat usage. ChatGPT is the best writing assistant you can ask for if you're not confident in your writing abilities.
  
  ChatGPT is a member of the OpenAI family of products, and it’s quickly becoming a one-stop shop for AI services. Features like DALL.E and API help designers and developers create original images that bring concepts to life and integrate existing applications or systems into their digital products.

• Cons: Though ChatGPT’s algorithm is constantly learning (in a non-scary way), the copy it generates has a limited and repetitive vocabulary. You can ask the AI to vary up the language a bit — but you'll want to keep a thesaurus on hand just in case.
  
  Another big drawback of ChatGPT is that it doesn’t always generate accurate information. Always fact-check the data it spits out to avoid misleading your users. Also, make sure to correct the AI by entering your findings (so the algorithm can take notes).
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Poised

• The Value: “Poised is the AI-powered communication coach that helps you speak with confidence and clarity. Private and secure, an essential tool for digital-first workplaces.”

• Why We Use It: A remote job (like the ones at CreateApe) is an introvert’s dream! But that doesn’t mean we don’t need solid communication skills. After all, our clients put their trust in us to create an impactful product — and we need to show our confidence when presenting our creations to them.
  
  Poised reads your speech in real time during meetings and provides feedback on everything from your tone to the filler words you use. It also recognizes trends in your speech patterns and tracks your progress to help you improve your presentation skills.

• Pros: Public speaking is one of the most common phobias (surveys typically indicate that 72-75% of the human population share this fear). With recommendations from Poised, you can adjust your speech on the fly and calm the fear about how you're perceived by your audience.
  
  But the benefits of Poised aren’t limited to presentations. In fact, this system is perfect for interview prep with tips about passive voice misuse, speed, filler words, and interruptions.
  
• Cons: Poised only works in English (for now). But if English isn’t your first language, this system can still be helpful for grammar and word pronunciation. There is also a slight delay in the real-time feedback feature. We recommend using Poised when your meeting has three or more participants to give you time to digest new information.
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See The Benefits Of These AI Tools For UX/UI Designers!

As you can see, we think AI tools are a valuable asset for UX/UI designers, providing opportunities to enhance productivity, streamline workflows, and generate new ideas.

While some of these products are still working out kinks, they significantly support and augment our busy, multi-tasking workflows. By strategically leveraging these eight tools, we’ve reduced tedious tasks and expanded our creative horizons as a team.

The key lies in understanding how to work alongside AI effectively. Recognize that it’s only as good as the input and guidance you provide. By mastering these AI tools for UX/UI designers, you can optimize your workflow, fill skill gaps, and deliver fully-realized products to your clients.

So even if you’re hesitant about AI, play around with a few systems and see how they can help you improve your processes. Who knows, you may find yourself taking a liking to a specialized field in UX/UI design through AI exploration!

If you’re looking for a fun agency job where you can use AI to take your designs to the next level, we’re always looking to add talented new apes to our shrewdness. Check out our open positions and apply today!

What do you and five billion people have in common? Notably, you’re all on the internet. 63% of the human population has the potential to see your business online, so how can your website design branding stand out?

Think like this: a website brand speaks volumes about your personality. What makes things stick out to you? How do you, personally, want to portray yourself?

We’ll revisit this topic later, but for now, learn how to shape up your website design branding strategy.

Check out Our Seven Tips to Put Your Brand Front and Center:

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Define Clear Branding Guidelines

It’s one thing to understand what makes your brand stand out, but defining your guidelines is another vital part of the puzzle. Create a solid baseline to allow your company to understand exactly what to do to match your brand. 

When you look at a new Apple phone on the shelves, you’re certain the product will look sleek and modern with a decent chance that you’ll keep the box after it’s opened.

Their website is no exception. Apple uses negative space to enhance the visual appeal of their newest products, further emphasizing the modern feel of Apple devices.

Above all, their style is consistent. If you put a colorful mascot on the Apple landing page, it would look severely out of place.

One other example you’re likely to recognize – Nike tacks their logo on just about every product they have. Even though the word “Nike” isn’t always visible, the trademark swoosh lets the world know exactly what brand they’re dealing with.

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Create Strong Visuals

Looking to make your site content up to 180% more engaging? Just add visuals! Tailor your site to your branding image to leave a lasting impression.

Online marketing has the perk of being highly adaptable. Change it up however you see fit, but create an engaging webpage to keep your visitors interested. 

Here’s our website redesign for PMPT, a business all about keeping you moving.

In this case, we streamlined their website design to allow for a more efficient user experience in setting up appointments and navigating the site. Your visuals should be appealing, but not obstructive to the user. 

Website design branding is more than creating a good-looking website – it’s about making an informed decision to craft a product that works for you.

If you’re looking to buff out your designs, check out how we can enhance your brand.

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Minimize Text

One of the many keys to effective website design branding is in your text. Keep your viewers reading by organizing your ideas and sorting those ideas into easy-to-digest snippets.

For reference, long and wordy paragraphs might work for a research paper, but if you’re aiming for a broader audience, then keep it short and to the point.

Remember: less is more. Nothing turns away online visitors like walls of text, so spread out your paragraphs to keep your visitor reading deeper into your site. Break up your text into easy-to-read paragraphs and allow yourself to use vocabulary that suits your audience.

Overall, the focus should be on creating a comfortable user experience.

Three Things to Consider for UX Friendliness:

• Content hierarchy
• Bulleted lists
• Punchy sentences

The purpose of a title is to get your visitor’s attention and read what comes after. Good content hierarchy allows for quick recognition of topics that your audience would like to read.

Once you have your content separated, split it up some more. Break up your text into readable snippets formatted as a bulleted list.

Then, structure your text around being as visibly appealing as possible. Short and to-the-point sentences keep your audience’s attention.

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Develop Your Brand’s Voice

At this point, we’re mostly all familiar with Wendy’s Twitter marketing strategy and the many attempts to replicate it. The fast food chain created a definitive voice that puts them near the top in terms of creative online marketing. They remain memorable to customers by being consistently witty and snarky, but they never go overboard.

While Wendy’s developed their voice to reach a target audience that aligns with their identity, if you apply this persona to a high-end restaurant, it likely wouldn’t go so well.

Reason being, they broke a few rules to reach their brand’s voice. This is 100% okay since that’s the style nuance they chose. Your brand can also reach this by understanding what works for you.

For example, a hair dye company might use incorrect grammar to sound casual and laid back. On the other hand, a bank would use proper corporate language to look professional.

All words have a story to them, and it’s just a matter of you choosing the right ones for the job.

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Be Mobile-Friendly

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We would guess that there’s a smartphone nearby while you read this article. To be more accurate, there’s roughly an 84% chance that’s true.

Nothing says “professional” like having a responsive website – a design that seamlessly adapts to smaller screen sizes. Always remember that as your brand grows, more people will check out your website on the go. 

And when we say “more people,” we mean that nearly 60% of all web searches come from a mobile device. Bumping up your mobile website design branding has the potential to skyrocket your influence.

Maximize your opportunities to spread your brand by ensuring the mobile version of your site is well-tested and optimized for smaller devices. Your visitors are ready to go, and you should be too.

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Know Your Target Audience

As we said before, there are a lot of people on the internet. So understanding your target audience is valuable for moving your website in the right direction.

Keep an Eye on These Demographics:

• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Income
• Interests

Use analysis programs like Google Analytics or Hotjar to get your user’s information. For example, if you have a low engagement rate with organic users then you’re not hitting your target market.

This means that if your visitors see your site from a Google search and don’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll leave.

Take a look at your analytics to get a better understanding of who you’re dealing with. For example, if you’re aiming toward the older crowd but your average visitor is a 19-year-old male, you need to revamp your site’s design.

Once you get a good idea of who visits your site, you can get into the details of how to market directly to them.

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Stay Consistent

If someone told you that you could make 33% more money by using the same words, would you take them up on that offer?

The reality is: viewers are more comfortable with a consistent brand. Even using your signature colors could even boost your brand’s recognition by 80%.

However, proper website design branding has a few extra steps when it comes to building that recognition.

Every site has consistent aspects to it. For example, the buttons on your website should do exactly what they imply. A “buy now” button should always lead to the purchase page.

Given the same context, this call to action (CTA) should be the same everywhere else on the site.

This doesn’t only apply to your CTAs. Throughout your brand identity, you’ll notice consistencies that your visitors recognize. 

Now, apply this thought process to the rest of your website. You name it: banners, buttons, CTAs, structure, visual style, etc. Again, consistency is key when establishing a connection with your visitors.

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Piece it Together

Take another look at your website design branding. How do you want to portray yourself? Bold, casual, professional, or laid-back? Each of these pieces come together in a way that paints your image in the public’s eye.

Every section of this blog post represents another piece of the problem when creating a unique and identifiable brand.

Each step to website design branding is like a Rubik’s Cube. It’s a relatively common comparison in digital marketing because each stage has a specific purpose. For example, suppose you attempt the standard 3x3x3 puzzle without a specific method. In that case, solving it could take you between 20 to 43 quintillion tries. Branding isn’t any different.

Naturally, successful branding can be done without research. It just takes time and a little bit of luck.

If you’re looking to make your own luck, CreateApe is here to solve your marketing puzzle. We’ll use our tried-and-true processes with a team of experts to investigate, ideate, and create your next big idea.

Get in touch to get your branding right the first time.

When you think of digital product failures, what comes to mind? It was probably a popular app that fizzled out or a “revolutionary” technology that was dead on arrival.

Digital products come in many sizes, shapes, and flavors. From websites and ebooks to SaaS systems and wearable devices, UX research and design affects online and real-world experiences equally. If one area falls short, it’s only a matter of time before the entire company crumbles.

According to Forbes, 70% of businesses either have a digital transformation strategy in place or are in the process of creating one. But a new cyber focus won't guarantee profitability or longevity — which is the biggest takeaway when observing noteworthy product failures.

As Yoda said in The Last Jedi, “The greatest teacher, failure is.” (Don’t come for us OT and prequel purists.) We follow this advice as UX designers because negative feedback and product failures give us a blueprint for defining best practices.

With Yoda’s nugget of wisdom in mind, let’s look at some infamous digital product failures and see what lessons they impart in this rapidly changing marketplace.

Our Top 6 Digital Product Failures

• Nike fuel band
• Microsoft Zune
• Myspace
• Crypto.com
• Vine
• Quibi
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What Causes Digital Product Failures?

We don’t want to dissuade you from launching your own product, but so many things can go wrong in the design or marketing process. In UX, the littlest design error or server crash can tank conversion flows.

This is why all our creations are thoroughly researched, tested, and QA’d before we launch them. Even then, there’s no long-term guarantee for success. Without a solid ongoing strategy, marketing plan, or sustainable business model, even the hottest products can become flops.
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Typical Factors:

• Lack of funding
• Minimal marketing efforts
• Assumption-based designs
• Premature launch
• Not adapting to market trends
• Edged out by competitors
• Faulty technology
• Failing to engage the target market

Of course, this isn’t the definitive list of all the things that can go wrong in business. Other factors like company acquisitions and legal challenges have the power to kill brands before they can leave a mark on their respective industry. 

Whether these contributors were out of the company's control or not, we can learn a great deal from their shortcomings and prepare ourselves for whatever the unpredictable digital market has in store.

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Revisiting The Top 6 Digital Product Failures Of Yesteryear

Maybe you used these digital product failures back in their heyday and have a nostalgic fondness for them. Or maybe you remember being sorely disappointed that they didn’t live up to the hype.

Whatever your perceptions are, we can still take a page from their book — but not for inspirational purposes.

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Nike Fuel Band

Who needs an Apple Watch or a FitBit when athletic wear behemoths like Nike have their own digital fitness tracker?

The answer is all of us.

Don’t ditch your preferred health devices anytime soon. Even though Nike was one of the first companies to offer fitness wearables with the Fuel Band in 2012, the novelty wore off quickly. They failed to grab a loyal audience and discontinued the product after just five years.
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What Went Wrong?

If you asked Jordan Rice, the former senior director of Nike NXT Smart Systems Engineering, the same question; he’d probably say “Shallowness.”

It’s no secret that health and wellness data are difficult to interpret, hence why we generally let Doctors take our vitals and set milestones for us. The Fuel Band presented users with lots of data about calories burned and steps taken, but its limited features didn’t help them contextualize what those numbers meant in the broad scope of their goals.

As fitness wearables evolved with more powerful sensors and robust data sources, the Fuel Band became obsolete in Nike’s respective markets.

“We tried to put data in the consumer’s hands, but I don’t know that we put depth in that data — a lot of it was data for data’s sake at times,” Rice said during a keynote presentation at Cambridge Consultants’ Innovation Day in 2017.

“I began to ask myself a little bit, how deep is this connection that we’ve actually created? Are people connected to the brand and the products? Is this data actually meaningful to them? [Is there] depth, are they taking any insight away from this, and are we really creating a gimmick?”

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Did Nike Recover?

Nike’s brand is still going strong with athleisure enthusiasts and sneakerheads everywhere. However, with the subsequent failure of their Sportswatch, it’s safe to say that their wearables experiment has pretty much tanked.

But Nike’s digital transformation wasn’t all doom and gloom. Once Apple announced its first smartwatch in 2014 (around when the Fuel Band started to go downhill), Nike quickly jumped on board with a running app developed specifically for Apple’s new device.

As of 2023, Nike and Apple are still compadres in digital fitness through the Nike Run Club — a powerful (and free) app for runners to track their calories, distance, and heart rate.

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Key Takeaways

• Translate Your Data: When a user is on a fitness journey (or just wants to monitor their health status), they need to understand what the data means to them.
  
  Are they burning enough calories daily to meet their weight loss goals? Are they taking enough steps to maintain their cardiovascular health? Is their high heart rate contributing to their high blood pressure?
  
  If the fuel band had more relevant features to put its data into context for the users, it would have made the experience more sticky for tracking health long-term.
  
  
• Keep Up With The Tech: Wearables were a new frontier when Nike released the Fuel Band, but they failed to adapt to the technological advancements.
  
  Let’s do a quick side-by-side comparison. When stacked next to the Apple Watch, the screen feels primitive and lacks the customization features of its counterpart. The Apple Watch ticks all the right boxes, feeling sleek and sophisticated while accommodating a workout.
  
  With a few ongoing design tweaks (and maybe some user testing), Nike could have found a way to update the look and feel of their product without sacrificing their brand identity.
  
• Have A Back-Up Plan: Thankfully, the Fuel Band wasn’t the nail in Nike’s coffin. Honestly, could you imagine a world without Jordans?
  
  While we can’t all have Tim Cook on our board of directors, keep your finger on the pulse of the industry at all times. If things go downhill for your company or product, look for avenues to keep your digital presence alive through partnerships.
  
  Even if your product isn’t the game-changer you were hoping for, a partnership can bring in strategic opportunities that allow your company to keep innovating despite setbacks. Who knows, there might be a Nike Run Club waiting in your future!
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Microsoft Zune

“Another one bites the dust…” - Apple, probably.

Seriously, we can’t overstate how much the iPod shook up the MP3 industry. With its sleek design and more storage space than any portable music player before it, other products couldn’t compare. That didn’t stop them from trying though.

Microsoft released the Zune in 2006 to compete with the iPod, boasting a larger screen with the same features and price. On top of that, they created the Zune Marketplace where users could purchase music, similar to the iTunes store.

So, if it functioned as well as the iPod, why was it such a hardcore flop?

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What Went Wrong?

While Apple meticulously planned, designed, and tested every version of the iPod, Zune rushed to keep up with them and always fell short. Zune is the perfect case study for building products around assumptions instead of research and discovery.

The first mistake Microsoft made when creating the Zune was assuming they had a viable market share. After all, Apple was raking in major dough with the iPod. Where could they go wrong? (Spoiler: they went very, VERY wrong.)

The Zune was about the same price as an iPod, but Apple already dominated the industry and lower-priced MP3s were still in circulation. Users couldn’t justify spending the big bucks on a lesser-known product.

The other mistake was that Zune failed to innovate with its features and functionalities. We always say not to try too hard to reinvent the wheel, but there has to be a unique value proposition if you want to emerge as a true competitor.

Besides the Zune-to-Zune song-sharing feature (which wasn’t tested or validated with users), the product was an iPod ripoff. As a result, Microsoft failed to capture even 10% of the marketplace and eventually discontinued the Zune in 2014 — losing almost $3 million in revenue.

When reflecting on the catastrophic failure of Zune, President of Yeti LLC Tony Scherba cited the lack of user research as the source of the digital product failure. He stated: “If it had (done user research), Microsoft would have learned before release that consumers didn’t truly value Zune’s features. The company assumed they did, and that was its downfall.”

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Did Microsoft Recover?

Microsoft’s poor timing was one of the biggest contributing factors to this digital product failure. Just a year after its release, Apple dropped their first iPhone — a smartphone with an MP3 built-in! That should have been the end of Microsoft in the portable tech landscape, right?

Even though Microsoft was late to the smartphone game (again), they launched the Lumia touchscreen phones and tablets in 2011 to phase out the Nokia brand. But since Nokia was an established brand and Lumia wasn’t, customers didn’t take the bait. Microsoft’s mobile business was discontinued in 2017.

It was a valiant effort, but alas, the Apple vs Android debate rages on without a mention of Microsoft. The company still lives on through the Office suite, Surface devices, and Xbox, but we can assume Microsoft smartphones are dead (for now).

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Key Takeaways

• Research Matters: Not only did Apple beat Microsoft to the MP3 market with the iPod, but they built their product strategy around immersive user research. The iPod designers were passionate music fans — but to create a product for music lovers on the go, they went to great lengths to observe potential users in their natural environments.
  
  This information is critical in product design, development, and marketing decisions. Microsoft should have followed Apple's lead when constructing the Zune and sought to gather user feedback throughout development continuously.

• Don’t Copy: They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but not when you’re trying to sway users away from their preferred digital product. When you're up against a tech giant like Apple, you must give your audience a reason to switch.
  
  Digital products give you space to experiment with technological capabilities, so it feels like a wasted opportunity to peddle a carbon copy of an already successful product. If Microsoft had done a more in-depth competitive analysis, they could have discovered a stronger value proposition for Zune.
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Myspace

Spike up your scene hair and alert your top eight friends…We’re throwing back to the early 2000s with this one!

Myspace, one of the first social media platforms, was a MASSIVE hit when it launched. With robust profile personalizations and new avenues for gaining an online following, it paved the way for digital connections, music subcultures, and the age of the influencer way before Instagram.

Speaking of other platforms, Myspace was easily usurped when Facebook and Twitter came around with simplified platforms. If users craved the personalization Myspace offered, then why did it fail?

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What Went Wrong?

While many tech-savvy users cited their personalization features as a big draw, the lack of consistency between pages created confusion in accessing basic features like user profiles and messaging portals for the average user. 

The customizations caused crashes because they were not compatible across browsers, creating more avoidable frustrations in the user experience. 

The complicated UX resulted in a product that was confusing, frustrating, and difficult to use — leading to low adoption rates. It also showed competitors its weaknesses, allowing them to improve the structure and nudge Myspace out of the limelight.

Had Myspace prioritized an intuitive experience over flashy profiles and interactions (or followed Facebook and Twitter with the streamlined UI), we’d probably be following Tom Anderson as closely as we follow Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey.

(Yes, we know Elon Musk runs Twitter now. But Jack Dorsey got the ball rolling, and we have to give credit where credit’s due.)
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Did Myspace Recover?

Until the last few years, Myspace has been a nostalgic footnote in the digital age. The hip teens and twenty-somethings who created the first profiles are all grown up now — and who doesn’t want to go back to the age when our only responsibility was updating our profile song?

But as Myspace’s former co-owner Justin Timberlake once said: “What goes around, goes around, goes around, comes all the way back around.” As social media becomes more commercialized and inundated with ads, users fondly remember the platform’s alternative roots and (in some circles) crave a comeback!

We saw this nostalgia in full force when an 18-year-old from Germany replicated the code to Myspace’s website and branded it SpaceHey. This rootsy and spirited “rebrand” launched in late 2020 and garnered an impressive 750,000 users as of August 2023.
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Though SpaceHey isn’t an official Myspace project, it launched a thousand think pieces from digital publications about the merits of resurrecting the platform in the age of TikTok. While it’s too soon to tell if the real Myspace will return, we have a few notes for its future resurgence.

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Key Takeaways

• Embrace Iteration: Before it became the social media juggernaut of the early 2010s, Facebook had a slow start polishing its platform. It went through several iterations before it caught on, adopting several new features and redesigns from 2005-2010. Even now, Facebook goes through new iterations and user flows to maintain its relevancy.
  
  If Myspace does make a comeback, they’ll have to keep a close eye on their competition and remain open to incorporating new layouts and technologies. Remember, the final product is rarely perfect, and optimization is the key to staying ahead of the curve.

• Keep The Focus On The Users: When conceptualizing a design, you should seek to understand the needs and motivations of users and design the product around their instinctive behaviors. We think SpaceHey is pretty successful in this category, tapping into the nostalgia of its audience and bringing back the features they loved.
  
  But the user experience isn’t just about design, features, or functionalities — it’s also about the environment you cultivate! In the Vice article we linked above, the users interviewed cite the focus on art and music as a major plus for SpaceHey’s identity.
  
  By conducting user research, creating personas, and testing prototypes, you can uncover these nuances and design validated solutions to ensure positive digital experiences and ongoing product value.

• Optimize For Mobile: Most people still used flip phones when Myspace was a big deal. For those who don’t remember, mobile internet access was non-existent around that time. So, while mobile optimization wasn’t the reason for the platform’s downfall, it’s something to pay close attention to if Myspace comes back.
  
  Whether we like it or not, social media platforms NEED mobile optimization if they’re going to succeed. If users are adamant about keeping the vintage look and feel with the same high-level customizations, Myspace will need to spend extra time ensuring the UI is responsive across devices.
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Crypto.com

Let’s ask the question that absolutely no one on the face of the earth has been asking themselves for the last year or two…Is cryptocurrency finally dying off? If people were already apprehensive about investing in this non-tangible currency beforehand, the Crypto.com hacks didn’t help.

As the market grew between 2020-2022, many investors started managing their assets on online platforms. But as we know, with sensitive information like finances, privacy and security should never be skimped on.

Crypto.com made the fatal mistake of not considering these factors when developing the platform — resulting in data breaches, loss of customer trust, and negative publicity for the company.

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What Went Wrong?

Crypto.com became the number one target of attacks due to the large amounts of money being transferred. Because the platform lacked data encryption and password managers, hackers easily bypassed the two-factor authentication and gained access to online wallets.

About $18 million worth of Bitcoin was stolen from 500 users, resulting in a PR firestorm where the company had to reimburse the stolen assets. Even though they performed a systems audit and improved the organization’s security posture after the fact, the damage was done.

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Did Crypto.com Recover?

A digital business can bounce back from a security breach, but on such a large scale with a massive sum of money stolen, user trust (the thing all financial management platforms should prioritize) was dead from then on.

Crypto.com officially closed its U.S. Institutional Services in June of 2023 as a result of government regulators filing lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase. While the company claimed the closure was due to the current market landscape and limited demand for their services, we aren’t wrong to assume the hacks played some role.

While the retail trading app still exists, the current regulatory environment for bitcoin trading, coupled with the crowded marketplace for digital management apps paints a grim picture for the future of Crypto.com.

Since the closure was recent, it might be too soon to tell if Crypto.com will survive or not. The lawsuits are from U.S. regulators — so it could still thrive with its international customers. But we can use the hacks as a cautionary tale about the importance users place on security and privacy.

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Key Takeaways

• Conduct Frequent Security Assessments: Every digital company should ensure its products are designed with security and privacy in mind. That includes performing regular maintenance to guarantee sensitive data is properly encrypted.
  
  When you protect your user’s information, you protect your business assets. Data protection, encryption software, and regular product maintenance are worth the investment. Keep in mind that softwares can change between versions and leave data vulnerable, so frequent audits are a must.

• Be Transparent About Data Collection: After Facebook’s data mining scandal in 2018, users are far more cautious with their online privacy. You must be forthcoming about how you’re using their data to improve the user experience and build trust.
  
  Make sure your privacy policies are easy for the user to find and understand, and notify users of third-party cookies to obtain consent. Additionally, companies should educate users about the measures they have in place to protect their data. Give them that extra reassurance that their data is in good, trustworthy hands.

• Don’t Trade Quality For Fad-Chasing: This isn’t particularly directed at Crypto.com, but it’s important to remember when you’re creating a product to capitalize on a digital trend. Timeliness is crucial, but quality matters more at the end of the day (looking at you, Zune).
  
  Yes, the competition is stiff in the crypto management market. But if users prioritize safety and intuitive features, focus on making those aspects the best they can be. Never rush to put out your product, especially one that handles finances or healthcare information.

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Vine

The concept of quick-bite content wasn’t completely novel in the early 2010s. If you think about it, some of the earliest viral YouTube videos were only a few seconds long. Vine built its entire identity around this idea, allowing people to create short 6-second clips that cater to our waning attention spans.

Vine was purchased by Twitter in 2012 and quickly became the most downloaded video-sharing app on the market. Users were flocking to the platform to watch viral videos and (hopefully) launch themselves into internet fame with a low-effort yet hilarious clip.

Ask any millennial to reference an internet video. They’ll either quote something from the early days of YouTube or throw in a classic Vine. But how did a platform that gave us so many legendary moments die out so quickly?

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What Went Wrong?

Vine’s 6-second video technology meant anyone could become a content creator. But with other video-sharing platforms emerging, Twitter failed to capitalize on Vine’s early success with future iterations — ultimately leading to its downfall.

The problem here came from Twitter overestimating the value of their property due to its exponential growth in a short period. But with our limited attention spans, it was way too easy for users to get distracted by a shiny new platform.

The newfound popularity of Instagram and Snapchat sent Twitter into panic mode, fearing that strategizing with Vine would make their platform irrelevant. Instead, they shifted their focus to their 30-second video feature.

This lack of product strategy, internal creative differences, and virtually no ad revenue spelled disaster for Vine. Its top creators also needed a way of content monetization, leading to them abandoning the platform in droves before it eventually shut down in 2016.

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Did Vine Recover?

Though Vine died out eight years ago, the memes it popularized still live on through YouTube and TikTok compilations. They could make a comeback, right?

Well, yes and no. The nostalgia’s strong enough to draw some curiosity, but could it reasonably compete with TikTok?

When Elon Musk officially acquired Twitter in 2022, one of the first ideas he explored was reviving Vine. Through a poll posted on Halloween last year, nearly 70% of users responded favorably — indicating some market demand.

However, a one-off poll isn’t the same as thorough research and competitive analysis. And we know that users rejected Vine as a Twitter-only feature (look up the Vine Camera debacle for more information). If Musk is serious about a renaissance, he should play his cards carefully.

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Key Takeaways

• Strategy Never Ends: Vine quickly gained notoriety through viral videos brimming with personality and celebrity-generated content. But after all the glitz and glamour wore off, competing platforms lured users away with similar functionalities, but more substantial value.
  
  When you capture an audience’s imagination like Vine did in the early 2010s, give them incentives to stick around long-term. If the platform had implemented some better video editing technology, sounds, or filters, it could have competed with Snapchat and (eventually) TikTok.

• Pay Your Creators: While paying people for short snippets of content with minimal production value doesn’t seem like the most lucrative practice, it’s worth it for the amount of traffic and ad revenue you can bring to your product.
  
  We see the power of influencer marketing in our everyday lives. With the attention Vine got from established entertainers and rising internet stars, they should have leveraged a partnership program with these users to help them produce original content — bringing their online followers back to the platform.

• Acquisition ≠ Success: When Twitter bought the platform from its founders for a whopping $30 billion, they probably thought Vine was set for life. Unfortunately, not all acquisitions are made equal.
  
  When you’re making a deal to sell your property, discuss product strategy and long-term vision before you surrender the rights. Now, all the work Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll put into their idea is down the toilet — which can’t be revived by the original team again due to legal limitations.
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Quibi

Besides Crypto.com, this is one of the more recent digital product failures. But it’s hard to remember the last time a product launch was this disastrous.

Lauded as a revolutionary new way to consume content on the go, Quibi was a new streaming service created by former Disney chairperson and DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. With a creative mind like Katzenberg leading the project and the arsenal of Hollywood stars creating original content for the platform, it should’ve been a slam dunk…right?

Yeah, no. Quibi crashed and burned less than a year after its launch. How do you manage that with so much star power and nearly $2 billion in funding?

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What Went Wrong?

Honestly, it might be quicker to talk about what didn’t go wrong:

1. A Reno 911 reboot (which went to The Roku Channel after Quibi went under).
2. An original series called “Survive” starring Sophie Turner, who always deserves more work.

That’s about it. But because there’s a lot to learn from digital product failures like this, we’re diving into it anyway.

As a mobile-first platform with short-form content designed to be watched during your morning commute or at the gym, timing was an issue. Quibi officially launched in April 2020, right around the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns. As you can guess, this rendered the whole purpose of the product pretty well useless.

“But people could’ve stayed home and watched on their phones, right?” Absolutely! The circumstances surrounding the pandemic were 100% out of Quibi’s control. But instead of regrouping and adapting to the situation, they released the product as-is with some deeply flawed functionalities.

The biggest complaint that users had was that the platform wasn’t mobile-first, it was mobile-only. You couldn’t live cast the programs on your TV, severely limiting its usage scenarios and running counterintuitive to the binge-watching experience.

It wasn’t just the restricted functionalities of the service that hindered Quibi; it was the content itself. About half of the $2 billion budget went to securing big-named actors for original programming, and the rest went to releasing shows that wound up shelved by their respective studios (and probably for a good reason).

But really, even in 2020, did we need ANOTHER streaming service? Were people willing to shill another $5/month for a Punk’d reboot? The whole project reeked of poor planning and no understanding of how users consume mobile content.

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Did Quibi Recover?

While Quibi’s meme-worthy implosion was recent (shutting down for good in late 2020), there have been no rumblings about a comeback. It’s safe to say Katzenberg and co-founder Meg Whitman have shelved it indefinitely.

But that’s not to say mobile-only content streaming couldn’t work. After all, users devote hours to their TikTok wormholes — where 3-5 minute videos rake in millions of views and shares. Where do they succeed where Quibi failed?

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Key Takeaways

• Pay Attention To Market Viability: We live in very different times since the advent of streaming. Netflix proposed a cheaper solution to cable TV, but now the market is so inundated with streaming services that watching all your favorite programs across them costs as much as your old cable package.
  
  With any new streaming service released in 2023, positioning is everything (mobile or otherwise). What does your platform offer that your competitor doesn’t? Why is a subscription to your service worth the five bucks?

• Prioritize Content, Not Celebrities: Look, we’re not above celebrity culture. It’s an effective marketing tactic that can introduce your product to a new audience. But even our favorites can produce some serious stinkers.
  
  These days, streaming services live and die by their original content. A well-known celebrity or IP provides recognition, but users need to be confident in the material they’ll be seeing long-term to convince them to keep their subscription.

• Understand Your Technology: Katzenberg gave us some pretty modern stories from his time at Disney and DreamWorks, but Quibi was his “Ok boomer” moment. It’s pretty clear neither he nor Whitman understood why we’re on our phones all the time.
  
  Yes, the portrait-to-landscape transition made for a more pleasing viewing experience. But TikTok and Instagram have that social component, driving the FOMO that keeps us swiping away. With digital products, everything’s connected (the technology, content, and interactivity). If one (or in this case, all three) areas are lacking, you have a sure-fire recipe for a failure.
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So, What's The Point Of All Of This?

The more we learn from the wrongdoings of other companies, the better our products will be in the future!

As a digital design firm, we care about creating memorable experiences and pushing the boundaries of what we can do with technology. However, these things take time, trials, and (occasionally) errors.

Like most of our blogs, our aim is not to offend — it’s to educate! Actually, we went pretty hard on Quibi. But Jeffery Katzenberg is probably keeping busy with a new business venture, so we hope he doesn’t mind.

These digital product failures show us the vital role strategy and UX design play in the success of digital products and businesses. Instead of beginning a new venture blindly, we can look to these cautionary tales to guide us and help us protect our brand.

Conceptualizing a new product is an exciting time for a company. If you want extra reassurance that you’re taking the right precautions, our strategic and user-focused design process will help you hit all the right notes with your target audience. Start a project with us today!

Our society is always on the go. Everything that works on a desktop needs to work on mobile devices.

Mobile optimization is not an afterthought in UX. Statistics show that internet access through mobile devices makes up more than half of the global web traffic. Technology gives us solutions to several everyday needs, and mobile devices make those solutions more immediate. 

UX designers consider the circumstances the user is under when interacting with a product. Whether adjusting an interface for smaller screens or translating it into a convenient mobile app, a good design should be intuitive and user-friendly across all devices.

Every device has its limitations, so some adjustments are necessary to ensure a smooth UX. These design principles help improve the usability and overall experience of your mobile interface.

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Hand Position Controls

Our thumbs can only stretch so far.

The most comfortable way we use our phones is to hold them in one hand and let our thumbs do the scrolling. Depending on the user's device or hand size, it may be hard to reach some elements on the screen.

This illustration shows the easiest and most difficult places to reach on the screen. Think of this as a framework for mapping out a mobile design. Keep the most important elements near the center and the less important ones along the border.

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Content Placement

Speaking of the most important elements…

A smaller screen means limited space, but that doesn’t mean you need to clutter all your content together to make it fit. Prioritize the importance of your content and let that shape the placement on the page. Our attention spans are short when we’re using our phones, so be sure the content on your homepage catches your user's attention right away.

Plan the map of the interface around the user’s goals. Why are they using your app, and what are they trying to accomplish? Landing page rules apply here — your user should understand the function right away and know where to go to complete their goals.
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Intuitive Navigation

Simple designs are king in web design and emperor in mobile UX.

There are more incidental and environmental factors at play when using a mobile device. For example, the user could be at the grocery store needing to check their account balance through their bank’s app. They don’t have time to stop and go through multiple steps to accomplish a simple goal.

Painless, logical navigation is essential when we’re on the go and need something done quickly. Try using minimalist designs, unambiguous CTAs, and recognizable symbols (ex: a trash can icon to delete things, a bell icon for notifications, etc).

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Tap/Swipe Friendliness

Our fingers are much less precise than a mouse.

When you have external links clustered together or small CTA buttons, it’s likely the user will end up clicking the wrong thing. Make sure control buttons, links, and CTAs are large enough for our fingers to target them.

Swiping is also an easy way for the user to control the interface. How many apps do you know of that built their entire navigation around swiping? It’s designed to keep us engaged for hours because we only see one piece of content at a time — so incorporate swiping when appropriate.

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Minimize Typing

It’s hard to walk and type at the same time.

When we’re on the go, we may not have time to fully formulate our thoughts and type them out in a way that makes sense. You don’t have to eliminate keyboards altogether, but there are a few ways to minimize the need for typing.

More and more digital products have voice UI because it’s so much faster to speak than type. Autocomplete features can also help the user quickly finish words and sentences when they’re on the move. You can also streamline logins by using thumbprint verification. As technology evolves, our options become limitless!

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Text Legibility

Don't make text smaller to fit the screen.

Good designs are legible and easy to navigate. The biggest part of UX is communicating with your user. If your content is hard to see, they’ll have a hard time comprehending your interface. A good rule of thumb is to keep text above an 11-point font so it’s visible without zooming in.

Let’s go back to content prioritization for a minute. On top of looking messy, cluttering your content onto the page distracts from any important messaging you are trying to communicate. Decide which pieces of text are the most important and make sure your user can read your content without struggle.

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Environmental Adjustment

Day or night, make sure your design can be seen!

Outdoor conditions can affect our technology. Some lighting and environmental conditions are less than favorable for screens. We’re reliant on apps when we’re out, and we need to use them no matter what mother nature throws our way.

Make sure your page elements are visible in all conditions. This is possible when there is enough color contrast between the background and controls/text. The user should be able to identify important icons so they can navigate the page under poor lighting.

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So Why Is This Important?

As smartphone usage increases, there is almost an expectation that every website has a mobile version to match. These design principles help us translate the things that work on a desktop into an interface that can be used anywhere.

Over half of the world’s internet traffic comes from mobile devices and that number is only going to go up! As UX designers, we need to ensure our solutions work on all devices to keep users engaged and satisfied.

Do you have an awesome site that’s ready to go mobile? CreateApe can help! Contact us today!