As a design team working across numerous products and disciplines, we’ve seen plenty of industries with poor UX design.
This isn’t to throw shade at you if you feel like your digital product is lacking in the user experience front. Because if we’ve learned one thing in our collective 20+ years, every problem has a solution.
Before talking to a UX consultant or agency, realize you’re not alone! Our research and evaluation phases include a robust competitive analysis, and we’ve seen the same design flaws tank user experiences, no matter how established the product is within your designated industry.
But the good news is that you can capitalize on these weaknesses to benefit your business. With the right strategy and a little know-how on the basics of UX design fundamentals, you can avoid the common design issues in your industry and lead its digital expansion by example.
The industries with poor UX design we included in this article are based on our opinions (with a few facts to back up our conclusions).
While we’ve certainly created projects and apps for some of these industries, there are a few fields of business in this list that we haven’t touched yet. While our opinions are formed by research and best practices, this blog intends to get the wheels turning and start a conversation on how to improve user experiences in these vital industries.
Furthermore, we’re not singling anyone out or trying to hurt feelings. While we generally like showing examples of what NOT to do, we’d rather tell you about what audiences feel when interacting with products in that industry to show you avenues for improvement.
If we mention a company by name, it's either a UX success story or to cite a specific case study that illustrates our point.
Now let’s get to the list proper 😎
Digital market trends have tipped toward more user-centric experiences for years, but some industries still need to catch up with the times. And you know what happens when household-name companies refuse to catch up.
Industries with poor UX design (from video rental chains and office supply manufacturing giants) toppled due to their inability to adapt to the digital age. But while new companies quickly took their place and made our lives easier, the industries listed here aren't going away anytime soon.
While this is good news for the major players involved, it creates confusion and frustration for the users — giving them a sense of dread every time they interact with one of these products. Is that really how you want users to feel whenever they need you to accomplish a goal?
We’re using this space to (gently) call out industries with poor UX design. But we’re not ones to dwell on the negative, so we’re also drawing from our experience and knowledge of best practices to discuss ways to improve them!
You’d think that our federal and local governments could create some less annoying websites with all the tax dollars we pay (okay, we promise that’s the last bit of shade we’ll throw).
Governments have several moving parts, so figuring out where to pay your taxes, update your voter registration, or apply for a permit is already confusing. Digital portals cut down on hectic office visits, but the overwhelming amount of information you have to sift through makes the process even more stressful.
Poor information architecture and disorganized content hierarchy aren’t the only problems with most government websites. The visual designs are painfully outdated — which is a huge factor in a user deciding whether or not they should trust a website.
And unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last seven years, the Government needs to gain our trust now more than ever.
If you’re a government employee that needs to convince your stakeholders of the value of UX in Government services, take a page from our friends across the pond!
In 2015, GOV.UK transitioned most of its public services to a digital platform. The website itself isn’t the most visually exciting interface. But prioritizing its most visited services above the fold during the two-year transformation program led to a higher follow-through with voter registration, making a lasting power of attorney, and carer’s allowance.
The impact of the streamlined digital transition was stellar. In the following months:
A simplified sitemap and a clean, legible interface go a long way. But there are a few key things to remember when revamping a website for government services.
One word: Paperwork.
While some hospital systems and healthcare practices have websites that make insurance verification and online booking a breeze, it’s no secret that all the paperwork involved makes them one of the most notorious industries with poor UX design.
A study from 2018 by the American Medical Association showed that 70% of physicians spent ten or more hours on paperwork and other administrative tasks per week. This takes away valuable face-to-face time in the patient experience and casts a negative light on the whole industry.
While the patient end of healthcare is paramount, provider burnout has far-reaching consequences for people in their care. It’s not just patient records they’re responsible for — they have to manage their own tasks and report incidents on behalf of their employer.
This example of excellent UX comes from the CreateApe camp! And we’re not just tooting our own horn. We created an incident reporting tool for Performance Health Partners to help their healthcare clients document safety and compliance events within their employee population.
By reducing the time it takes to report an incident and follow the proper protocols, our digital tool alleviated providers of tedious administrative tasks, allowing them to spend more time with their patients, eliminate a portion of after-hours paperwork, and improve overall outcomes for the hospital’s population.
This isn’t just an assumption, either. Our Incident Management System was ranked #1 by Best In KLAS earlier this year after scoring 13.3 points higher than the average KLAS software! A Best In KLAS designation indicates that a digital tool enables a healthcare provider to efficiently meet the needs of their patients and providers alike.
Print may be dead, but it’s still alive online! However, whether it’s a huge publication or a niche digital rag, many news sites are littered with user experience flaws that drive people away from their most interesting stories.
A news website doesn’t seem super complicated on a surface level. But when you consider the categories, writers, and archives that go into a user’s interaction with the site, the sitemap becomes much more elaborate.
Couple basic search features and filters with excessive pop-up ads and gated content — you get another industry with poor UX design.
We'll use a case study by Sally Chen from UX Collective to demonstrate why news platforms (specifically the Apple News App) consistently rank among industries with poor UX design. By looking at Chen’s findings and user research, we can see a lot of similar problems between other news products.
Through Chen’s audit, she discovered that the app’s functionalities were limited. To make the experience more adaptable to the user’s taste and encourage repeat usage, she conducted user tests to see what consumers wanted from their news sites.
These common pain points were cited:
Chen’s UX fixes focus on news applications, but websites can benefit from these strategies too!
A simple interface that lists your stories isn’t enough for the average news reader anymore. These days, users have too many interests, biases, and reading habits — and they expect those intricacies to be catered to if you want to hold their attention.
Whether you’re part of a large firm or an independent practice, many legal websites make the same mistakes — making them one of the most well-known industries with poor UX design. Your legal website should reflect you and your services, but it also needs to speak to the types of clients you serve.
Many lawyers would agree that the hardest part of their job is gaining and keeping their client’s trust. Since the first interaction with a lawyer is through a website, you should show (not tell) your commitment to their best interests.
So, while your website should boast your skills and experience in the legal field, it’s imperative to balance that line between you and your users to persuade them to set up a consultation.
And another one from the CreateApe team!
Law 888 is an established personal injury law firm in California specializing in immigration, social security, criminal defense, and worker’s compensation law. Despite their excellent reviews, their website was cluttered with unfocused information and branding.
When we tested with their target users, their major pain points were the lack of educational content to help them understand their case (law is complicated, people) and limited translation options for the website’s content (when the majority of their clients were Spanish, Mandarin, or Cantonese-speaking).
Instead of reorganizing the sitemap and translating the copy into plain-spoken language, we updated the branding to reflect their average client. We deeply studied Hispanic, Latino, and Chinese cultures to understand what resonated with them, then translated everything into the new visual design.
The success was palpable. Plus, with some strategic SEO implementation, we increased their website visits by 5,000 users!
The most important thing to remember for users seeking legal representation is that they’re going through a STRESSFUL time. They’re likely learning a bunch of new jargon and processes on the fly — and all they want is to feel supported.
You may feel compelled to talk about yourself or your practice with your website, but that won't inspire a potential client to get in touch. Instead, use this first digital touchpoint to help them understand their rights and options when navigating the complicated field of law.
Our list is in no particular order, but we’re putting banking and financial digital products low among industries with poor UX design because most fintech companies keep their platforms relatively simple. Perhaps a little too simple…
It seems counterintuitive for a UX design company to point out oversimplification as a negative. But let’s be real, some of these product designs are snoozefests. As we said earlier in the Government section, looks are everything (especially for tech-forward millennials and Gen-Z’s starting their first accounts).
Also, when it comes to keeping their banking information and assets secure, users need that extra context to provide guidance and avoid misunderstandings related to their money.
Just like the legal field, the finance industry is full of fancy jargon and elaborate concepts that are too complex to explain in plain language. But while some of us may never seek legal counsel (if we’re lucky), we all need to know how money works.
Unless you’re a Wall Street player or an avid investor, it’s hard to make these financial topics interesting enough to help users understand how taxes, interest rates, debt, and assets impact their income. At the end of the day, the average user only cares about making ends meet.
On top of the inherently dull nature of finances, the lack of friction is an unexpected struggle for fintech products. Users want an accessible and easy-to-use product, but it can’t be so seamless that it accidentally leads them to make mistakes with their money.
With the cost of living and inflation at an all-time high, misinterpreting balances and budgets could have severe consequences. Take the case of Alexander Kearns as a cautionary tale for the effects of poorly designed financial UX.
(We’ll let you read this one on your own. But as a trigger warning, this article does discuss suicide.)
While Kearns’ case is an outlier, it shows us the impact that industries with poor UX design have on their users. It also demonstrates just how far some simple tips, alerts, and notifications can go in preventing a tragedy (or at least recklessness with money).
But how should banks and investment platforms toe the line between easy-to-use and conscientious? Since money is a major concern for everyone, a consumer-first mindset is especially paramount for fintech products.
Maybe…but if you’re involved in these industries with poor UX design, we hope you don’t feel singled out. The industries we discussed here all share a common need for significant improvement in user experience.
It's important to remember that these criticisms are not meant to attack or shame, but rather highlight the areas where UX design enhancements can benefit both companies and users.
As we've seen, even well-established industries with significant user bases can falter without seamless solutions. But these practical strategies can enhance your company’s perception (and your whole industry by extension).
By recognizing the frustrations with your industry’s digital offering, you can capitalize on those weaknesses, ensure trust with your users, and lead by example.
If you feel like any part of this article applies to you and your company, there are two things to remember: you are not alone and it is okay to ask for help.
Working with a UX designer or an agency (*ahem*...*AHEM*) can get you closer to understanding your product’s flaws and guide you on the proper path to fixing them. Start a project with us today!
Digital products are our bread and butter here at CreateApe — and we know a thing or two about foolproof digital product design elements.
It doesn’t matter if you’re designing a cybersecurity system or a dating app. The products that catch on have one thing in common…they all solve a problem in the most seamless way possible.
You might recognize a few commonly used digital product design elements from product to product. But which ones are the most popular?
We talk a lot about digital products and the steps to creating one, so we won’t spend too much time defining this. Simply put, a digital product is anything you interact with on a computer, phone, or any other device.
This means that your company’s website, your favorite mobile app, your grandma’s favorite ebook, and that TikTok you sent to your friend last night are all digital products. As you can see, almost everything you interact with online falls under this umbrella.
Since a digital product can help a person or a business gain major notoriety, they are extremely popular in today’s digital landscape. But, how do you create a product that stands out against an admittedly crowded market?
Think about your favorite mobile app (or the one you use most often). What draws you to it? Why do you use it so often?
Do you get sucked into your favorite social media app for its seemingly endless supply of content? Are you always checking your favorite banking apps obsessively to see if your direct deposit has hit yet? Do you never feel like cooking and rely on Uber Eats to keep you fed?
To you, you’re just using a fun app that helps you get the job done quickly. But to a UX designer, it’s all about the strategic placement of features and digital product design elements.
Big-time products undergo a rigorous UX evaluation process where digital product design elements are recommended, implemented, and tested with their target users. This infallible UX design strategy helps companies reach new heights with their offerings and edge out their competition.
These design elements are a surefire way to build a thoughtful user experience with a digital product. Think of them as the secret weapon every UX designer should carry in their back pocket.
About 75% of users judge a product's credibility based on its aesthetics and an inconsistent experience could severely hinder your product’s trustworthiness.
Consistency is more than carving out a unique visual identity and carrying it throughout every screen. It’s about ensuring every corner of the design reflects your brand in the best way possible.
This also means that the user flow must be logical to cater to our basic instincts. Have you ever tried to buy a product online, and instead of taking you to the product details screen, the site wouldn’t let you see it without creating an account? How annoyed were you?
Every pixel in your design is a new opportunity to help your user achieve a goal and showcase your personality. Keep this in mind when you’re designing seemingly innocuous screens like terms of service or 404 errors.
As much as we like talking about ourselves, no one has time (or the interest) to fill out a million questions to use your product.
The really great digital products as of late have gotten us used to instant gratification. Especially when a user needs to solve a problem quickly, it’s on the designer to eliminate as many barriers as possible.
Imagine you’re creating a banking app for a second. Think carefully about the scenarios where your user needs to access the app. Security is critical to users when it comes to their money, but they don’t have time to jump through a bunch of hoops when they need to check their account balance in the line at the grocery store.
A good design is only half the battle. What is a beautiful product without some enticing copy to help the user understand the big picture? It might as well just be some cool wall art at that point.
UX design and writing go together better than peanut butter and jelly. You can have one without the other — but they form a dynamic flavor profile together.
The messaging in your digital product needs to serve multiple purposes:
Usually, someone is coming to your product with one goal in mind. Whether it’s booking a ride home from the bar, depositing a check in their bank account, or finding a date for Friday night, your product has to understand the basic goals and the actions the user needs to take.
In UX design, choice can become a burden. Too many options cause the experience to become cluttered and confusing. Overwhelming the user is a big no-no in UX.
Take things one step at a time. Pick a goal to focus on, lay out the actions the user needs to take, eliminate potential roadblocks, and get the user where they need to go.
That’s not to say there can’t be any additional features and upgrades, but they need to support the user’s focused goal. Looking at Uber as an example, they let the user choose which kind of ride they want (rideshare, comfort, XL, eco-friendly), but it's all in support of the primary goal…finding a ride to their destination.
This digital product design element piggybacks off the last one. You NEVER want to bury the elements that help the user accomplish their primary goal on the page.
Newspapers structure their content by keeping their most eye-catching stories “above the fold.” The idea is that the reader sees a story that piques their interest enough to buy a copy. The same rule applies to visual hierarchy in UX.
The user knows why they’re coming to your product and what goal they need to accomplish. The “above the fold” section of your website is the first thing they’ll see when the page loads, so it’s important to satisfy the search intent right away.
Storytelling is key when it comes to building a digital product, and there’s no stronger introduction than helping the user find exactly what they need right away. Keep the content that satisfies the user’s needs “above the fold,” then structure the rest in order of importance.
You wouldn’t buy your Grandmother a motorcycle for her birthday. You also wouldn’t recommend your favorite horror movie to a five-year-old (at least, we hope not).
The best digital products have some element of personalization. Using an algorithm that studies your user’s behavior and interests helps you keep the content they’d be most interested in front and center.
In fact, 54% of users prefer interacting with content that’s personalized to their interests. Think of it as giving a thoughtful gift to your user, where the algorithm says “I saw this and instantly thought of you!”
You can also incorporate personalization through avatars, preference settings, and customizable interfaces. Anything that lets your user give their interface a little personal touch.
On a static screen, subtle animations are an easy way to draw the user's attention to where they need to go. Or you could create dynamic animations to really immerse your user into the interface.
Us humans are visual creatures, and animations can serve multiple purposes in the user experience. They can indicate something as small as an object relationship or alert the user of a change.
You have plenty of room to get creative with a digital product. From microinteractions to 360-degree tours, you can communicate a lot about a product or service with a simple animation (and cut down on the amount of explanatory copy on a page).
Remember when we were talking about the burden of choice? Some people love exploring all the options available to them. Others can feel intimidated by it or anxious about choosing something that’s not the right fit for them.
The key is to understand the way your users think and keep a laser focus on their wants. Get as granular as possible to narrow down to the options that match their needs the closest.
You can reduce decision-making in a few ways. One great way is by letting user feedback guide your design. Your users will give you great insight into the features they need and the things they don’t, which helps you cut a lot of fat from the product.
The devil is often in the details, and something as simple as filters can also help users pick and choose the things they want.
Your product is the steak, and the features are the sizzle. However, too many convoluted features can leave your product feeling a little overcooked.
The good news is that technologies like AI and voice recognition can be utilized to seamlessly solve problems, big and small. After all, think about how simple things like facial recognition, electronic payments, and chatbots have made your life so much easier.
Your features don’t have to be groundbreaking, but something that clearly answers a user’s question or solves a problem goes a long way. Think seriously about incorporating something fun and interactive like customizable wishlists or product quizzes into your design.
A beautiful UI design can increase your conversion rates by up to 200%. It goes without saying that you can’t have a cool product with a boring design. You just can’t!
Your UX/UI design needs to balance all the same intricacies as the messaging. It also needs to meet the middle of the business goals and the user’s needs without being too bland or too intricate.
This sounds like a fine line to walk, but a good UX designer (or team of designers 😉) will know exactly where to implement these digital product design elements into a design that supports the brand identity and the user journey.
As we said earlier, We are VISUAL creatures. Our UX design strategy helps us empathize with our client’s goals and what the users want to see. This takes our digital product designs from just pretty to meaningful, making the product more impactful in the long run.
Building a digital product seems intimidating at first, but knowing what digital product design elements you need gets you off to a great start.
Spend some time brainstorming about what you think the finished product will look like. How would you describe the look and feel? Who are the target users and what do they want? What design elements are there to help them accomplish their goals? Why should they keep coming back to your product?
Asking yourself these questions will help you form a killer UX design strategy to guide you through product creation. Then you can plug in these digital product design elements where they make the most sense.
Whether you need a brand-new product or an existing one redesigned, CreateApe knows how to utilize these digital product design elements to give it that extra oomph.
Still not sure if your product needs a UX facelift? Get a UX Evaluation to see what CreateApe can do for you or start a project with us today!
It’s a jungle out there — let the Create Ape experts help you traverse the wilds as we take your project to new heights.