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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!

At CreateApe, we speak the language of love. Not only are we here to help you traverse the jungles of UX/UI, but also the groves of the heart. We love holidays around here, so it’s no surprise we want to spoil our significant others on Valentine’s Day. Depending on your significant other’s tastes, the bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolate from the grocery store might make the cut. For most of our team, it’s impossible not to fall into a trap.

First, it starts with flowers, but then comes the contemplation of adding a nice piece of jewelry, maybe a candlelit dinner, or the gadget they’ve been casually slipping into a conversation for the past two weeks…

For the average American on Valentine’s day, we found that the classic roses and chocolates aren’t cutting it anymore. According to USA Today, 55% of Americans who plan to celebrate Valentine’s day are estimated to spend $143.56, reaching total spending of 19.6 billion. That’s 1.4 billion up from last year.

As our team searched around for gifts this year, we couldn’t help but notice some of the amazing Valentine’s Day landing pages that excel in their UX that made us open up our wallets (and our hearts of course). We’re a sucker for a good landing page, especially one made for the holidays. After all, they’re one of e-commerce’s biggest tricks and of course, fun for everyone.

So whether you’re shopping for a gift to surprise your Valentine or getting something nice for yourself, it’s okay we all do it, here are five landing pages that have a special place in our heart.

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1. Amazon

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Amazon is like Disneyland for procrastinators. Their prime shipping appeals to the masses and they know that it’s their strong suit during the holidays. On their homepage, they immediately show categories for all of Valentines Day’s most popular gifts. They include a concise section of gift choices, chocolates, flowers, jewelry, and gift cards. Not only making life easy for the user but also giving them a place to start.

To make life even easier, they include gift categories for certain demographics (yes, even your pets) and organize their site based on your Valentine’s Day plans. Date night in? No problem. Galentine’s Day? They already have pre-selected items and showcase the easy to shop possibilities. UX is about not having to make the user think, and Amazon does the thinking for you with their landing page.

Not only is each option presented for optimal use, but each option they promote is also visually separated by shades of pink, red, and purple accompanied by compelling photography. This allows users to segment each alternative without risking information overload.

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2. AT&T

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There’s something to be said about the power of a strong hero image. AT&T decided to pass on the various shades of pink and red in its design but instead went with a bold and captivating hero image that reflects AT&T’s brand identity of connecting people through their services.

The image speaks for itself, but text placed in the hero evokes tone and romance. Besides the image, the header and the call to action carry the heaviest weight on the page. The user’s eye immediately goes to the image of the couple and then to “Shop Gifts.” The clean and simple design is alluring and clearly paves out the users desired path.

Even when scrolling down the homepage, AT&T excels at directing the user to options. The packaged deals that indicate what phone plan are the best for you and your Valentine are mapped out and showcased in boxes with clever copy such as, “One for you. One for your valentine.”

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3. Chanel

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Chanel’s landing page features their most popular product during Valentine’s season, perfumes. Again, they use a powerful hero image to convey the emotions attributed to the holiday. Using light pink contrasted with the masculine black perfume bottle evokes desire, confidence, and love.

The most powerful part of Chanel’s landing page is within simplicity. They do an excellent job at straying from the overwhelming and kitschy Valentines Day ad’s that can appear too sales-y. They stay true to their brand heritage as a sleek timeless brand while giving the user an easy way to shop their products. The user is left wanting to seek the same emotions the landing page emits and explore Chanel’s other products.

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4. Kenneth Cole

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In 2019, standing out among the crowd can be a challenge. Kenneth Cole hit the mark this Valentines Day with their provocative and clever landing page. Instead of leading users to follow the desired path, they encourage the user to simply stay on their site with their attention-grabbing header “This Valentine’s Day Get Some For Date Night.”

Kenneth Cole does a great job of utilizing white space. Immediately the eye is drawn to the text in the middle of the page and there’s a purposeful weight assigned to “Get Some for Date Night.” The contrast between black and white makes it impossible to escape from their bold and playful design and piques interest in what Valentine’s Day items you can find on their site. If you’re looking for direction, we personally love their jeans.

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5. Lancome

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Lancome’s page showcases makeup how-to’s and three different looks you can try on Valentines Day. The best part of Lancome’s landing page is their storytelling element. They have the user imagining themselves in every different scenario wondering what their Valentine’s Day possibilities hold.

Each photo is linked to the product’s that are used in each look. This makes it easy to shop and pick out items based on the user’s needs. The emotional appeal is strong throughout the page, as you’re left wanting to emanate the same emotion Lancome has captured and explore their products.

Even cards and lipstick kissed letters are in the background of the makeup photos, adding to the allusion and asking the question what’s in the cards for your Valentines Day?

One of our biggest motto’s is UX/UI inspiration comes from everywhere. Whatever your plans are on Valentines Day, we hope you’re inspired and surrounded by the ones you love! And in the spirit of user experience, get some for date night.

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.

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Full Disclosure

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 😎

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5 Industries With Poor UX Design

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.

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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!

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Government

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.

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How A User-Centric Experience Saved The UK Government £1.7 Billion In 2015

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:

• 98% of driving tests were booked online
• 85% of self-assessment filings were executed electronically
• 12 million eligible citizens registered to vote using digital services
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Simple Ways To Improve Your Government’s Digital Services

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.

1. Prioritize Service Portals Over News & Updates: We know YOU think the latest Government happenings are super interesting. But users don’t want to scroll through a pile of articles to update their voter registration or get new vehicle tags.
   
   Conduct user testing to pinpoint the services with the highest activity on your Government’s site. Then ensure they can find those web portals when they first land on the page. Save news and blogs for social media accounts.

2. Prepare For The Worst: While we don’t like to dwell on the negative, the COVID-19 Pandemic showed us how unprepared our state and local Governments were for disasters. Even though the worst of the pandemic is over (*knocks on wood*), you never know which new fiasco could be around the corner.
   
   New bills or laws have serious ramifications for your citizens, business owners, and taxpayers. Be prepared to give your site visitors the lowdown with alerts and relevant FAQs — also, ensure your prominent service portals are ready for an influx of users.

3. Improve Page Loading Speeds: Since Government websites are large products with multiple pages, some may load slower than others. If a user needs to make payments or apply for a loan or permit, you must maintain these pages to function at optimal speeds.
   
   Quick load times facilitate higher transaction completion and lower checkout abandonment rates. Plus, it relieves a massive burden on your customer support team. Keep a web development team around to perform regular website maintenance and alleviate customer frustrations.
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Healthcare

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.

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How An Incident Management System Helped Performance Health Partners Focus On Delivering Quality Care

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.

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Simple Ways To Improve The Digital Healthcare Experience

1. Consider Patient And Provider Needs Equally: Provider burnout affects us all. And with the rapidly dwindling number of healthcare workers and increasing patient populations, we need to eliminate as many barriers as possible.
   
   This could be as simple as asking for patient intake forms when someone books an online appointment or an electronic payment portal. Anything that reduces wait times and after-hours paperwork for physicians — the solutions you implement should be mutually beneficial.

2. Incorporate Telehealth Appointments: Only some check-ups require an in-person visit. And since the Pandemic turned us into a bunch of homebodies, telehealth appointments are a quick and easy avenue for symptom reporting and prescription updates.
   
   This may seem obvious since most providers already offer telehealth appointments. But you should always ensure your video conference platforms are optimized and secure. Plus, features like an online waiting room and time estimates can significantly improve the telehealth experience.

3. UX-ify Patient And Provider Portals: Healthcare portals don’t need to be the most visually exciting thing on the planet, but an organized information architecture and easy-to-navigate dashboard go a long way.
   
   The patient's experience outside the facility walls can drastically alter the perception of their care. Always provide quick access to patient records, diagnostic results, provider messages, and payment flows. The easier patients can find the services they need, the less burden on your receptionists.
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News Websites

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.
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Where News Websites And Apps Fall Short Of User Expectations

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:

• “For You” stories were not relevant to the user’s interests
• Skipping the “Follow Your Favorites” step due to an overwhelming number of options
• “Save”, “Like”, or “Share Story” options were too hard to find
• The search page automatically suggests topics the user is not interested in
• Way too many notifications
• No search bar to quickly find saved stories
• No theme or font options for comfortability and accessibility
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Simple Ways To Improve Online News Navigation And Consumption

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.

1. Survey Your Users: How can you gauge your audience’s unique interests so you can entice them with new content? A survey is a safe bet, making users feel more engaged with your brand.
   
   With a survey, you can ask your users various questions to tailor your content to their tastes and attention span, such as their favorite topics, authors, political leanings, etc. You can also use your survey findings to shape your onboarding flows with updates from trusted publications, new pieces from their favorite authors, and localization elements.

2. Provide (Limited) Free Articles: We understand that news platforms need to make money since physical copies don’t sell well. We also believe that journalists should get paid for the hard work they put into their articles. But still, users are unlikely to purchase a monthly subscription without content previews.
   
   We’re not suggesting you give away the whole store. But 3-5 free articles a month are sufficient to give the user a taste of your content and let them decide if they want to pay up for more. You can also sweeten the pot with access to exclusive member content when they join.

3. Simplify Search Bars: It’s okay to recommend the newest articles on your search page, as long as they don’t overpower the search bar. A better approach here is to recommend popular topics or keywords (like Chen did in her Apple News App redesign).
   
   Plus, adding a search bar to your “Saved Stories” screen will help the user find the content they want to read later much faster (if you’re like us and save too many stories to keep track of).
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Law/Legal

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.

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How A Focused Website Design Increased Law 888’s User Base

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!

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What Speaks To The Average Client?

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.

1. Avoid Distractions: We love clever load screen animations or a parallax scrolling effect. But as the kids say, read the room. When interacting with a law site, the user wants to find the information that applies to them quickly.
   
   Aim for clean and fast-loading search features, content displays, and screen transitions. And this goes without saying, pop-up ads, autoplay videos, and flashing images. The more control you give the user over their own experience, the more trust you subconsciously instill between them and your practice.

2. Optimize For Mobile: A common faux pas we’ve seen among our legal clients is an unoptimized (or altogether missing) mobile experience. Since 92.3% of internet users access the web through a mobile device, it’s imperative to translate your experience across devices.
   
   Plus, since users may need to access your contact information on the go, ensure they can find your email and phone number easily for whatever problems they run into while preparing for court.

3. Use Clear, Concise CTAs: A call-to-action button can make or break a consultation inquiry. So you must ensure they’re not buried too low in the web page or relegated to embedded links.
   
   Ideally, they’ll have a spot above the fold on your home page. But you’ll want to intersperse them throughout your services and about us pages so they’re easily accessible throughout the user journey. And don’t forget a strong call-to-action on your contact form.
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Finance

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.

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Common Fintech Pain Points

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.)
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Encourage Financial Literacy & Confidence With An Excellent User Experience

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.

1. Implement Extra Security Measures: Healthcare isn’t the only field where digital products store sensitive information. To gain the user’s trust and confidence, reassure them that their account information, assets, and transactions are safe from prying eyes.
   
   Users generally prefer quick access, but not when their money is on the line. Don’t be afraid to use extra validation methods, such as two-factor authentication or security questions, as a protective barrier against bank and credit card fraud.

2. Explain How Alerts Apply To Them: Excessive alerts and notifications from your organization are a total turn-off. But knowing is half the battle when it comes to responsibly managing finances. That’s why you should always keep the “What’s in it for me?” angle in mind.
   
   If your UX makeover just launched, show users where to find their cards, transactions, and other account details. If there was a major change in their balance, alert the user of any direct deposits or overdraft fees. And if a stock is performing well or completely tanking, provide information about the next steps to avoid reactionary mismanagement.

3. Incorporate Gamification: We know we made fintech UX sound so serious — and it is! But that doesn’t mean your experience should be sterile and boring. They need to be engaged in your content to truly understand their finances. And gamification is a fun, immersive way to help them connect the dots.
   
   A gamified interface looks different depending on the type of platform. For a banking app, you can incentivize the users to set budget goals and show them how they’re performing from month to month (and where they rank among a percentage of your customers). For investment platforms, it could be social elements or knowledge assessment quizzes for newbies or seasoned investors.
   
   The goal is to get creative and find what drives that sense of healthy competition (and repeat usage).
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Feel Called Out?

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!

Storytelling in UX gets your audience emotionally invested in your product. Usability leaves an impression, but your product’s story keeps it relevant and relatable.

How often have you turned off a movie because it wasn’t sucking you in? Or have you ever watched a movie all the way through when it started strong, but didn’t stick the landing?

Our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter (thanks TikTok…). The actual statistics vary, but a 2020 report from the Nielson Norman Group estimates that you only have 10 seconds tops to catch and keep your users attention.

So, how do you visually convince your user to keep scrolling when they rarely look below the fold? Should you try to cram all the information into the header and hope they read everything?

No, dummy! No one (and we repeat NO ONE) is going to read all that. When it comes to getting your user hooked, your digital product needs a captivating and well-structured story.

5 Tips for Storytelling in UX

• Choose a genre
• Consider the scenarios
• Treat the story as a hero’s journey
• Learn to love editing
• Focus on world-building
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What Makes a Good Story?

Every person or brand has a story. Whether or not the user gets invested in the story depends on how you tell it.

Most stories (especially movies) follow a three-act structure: Set-up, confrontation, and resolution. This structure could translate to a website or digital product, but not every story needs three clearly defined acts.

If you’ve ever taken an English or creative writing course, you might have seen the mountain story structure chart. It maps the entire plot from beginning to end, starting with the exposition, followed by rising action leading to the climax. 

After the story reaches its peak, everything starts to settle by wrapping up plot points and reaching a resolution.
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Let’s apply this structure to a brand story (using Spotify as an example):

• Exposition: Spotify was founded in 2006 in Stockholm, Sweden by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon as an answer to the music piracy problem in the early 2000s.
• Rising Action: Spotify starts earning revenue through their “freemium” business model and selling ad space. They also started acquiring other music discovery platforms as early as 2013.
• Climax: Though their focus was primarily on music from the beginning, Spotify started offering podcasts in 2015 when they reached 60 million active users.
• Falling Action: Spotify continues to acquire podcasting companies, along with platforms for sports, entertainment, and pop culture media. Podcasts become a cornerstone of their media library.
• Resolution: By Q4 of 2021, the number of monthly active users grew by 18% year-over-year. This roughly translates to 406 million users.

Of course, this isn’t the ONLY way to present your personal or brand story. Iconic movies like Pulp Fiction (actually, most Quentin Tarantino movies) are notorious for not following the three-act structure. And plenty of stories function as short vignettes instead of having a strong central plot (looking at you, “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac).

But if you’re not a wildly acclaimed author or Oscar-winning screenwriter, these structures can help any novice writer with storytelling in UX.

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5 Tips for Storytelling in UX

So you’re putting together a digital product. You have all the flows sketched out and all the steps the user needs to take to accomplish a goal. Now, you have to give your user a reason to follow through.

How do you give the user the right incentive to stay to the end and come back for more? By telling a story along the way that hits all the right beats and resonates on a personal level.

Every product has a story to tell. But if you’re not sure where to start, you can always follow these five simple tips for storytelling in UX design.

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Choose a Genre

It’s safe to say that there’s no such thing as a “general audience” in UX design. The best digital products have a focused niche that solves problems for a clearly defined demographic.

Just like science fiction novels are a bigger hit with the comic con crowd and some people can’t handle ultra-gory horror movies, a digital product’s story works better when it’s tailored for its intended audience.

You can start by defining the purpose of your product (an app for finance management, an integration software for client management, etc). But that’s just the beginning. The story should always have additional layers for a more distinct personality.

Once you identify the product’s target audience, consider how you’re going to communicate with them, how you’re going to establish and structure the goals, and how you’re going to pitch your solutions to your potential users.

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Consider the Scenarios

You could write the best novel ever that wins every literary award under the sun, and some people would still rather wait for Netflix to adapt it into a TV show. Why would someone rather binge a TV series when the source material is so much better?

They might not be big readers, to begin with. Or they might not have time to finish a 1,000-page from end-to-end. How do you get your audience to take that crucial first step with all those figurative “blockers” in the way?

Audible is an excellent example of turning those user pain points into opportunities (we promise this isn’t a sponsored post 😜). A huge online audiobook library helps literature enthusiasts enjoy stories without taking time out of their day to sit down and read.

These scenarios also apply to the accessibility of the product. It helps to put yourself in the user’s shoes and think about when and where they need to use the product (on the bus, at the gym, or in a crowded nightclub). What flows or messaging would assist them or drive them away in these scenarios?

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Treat the Story as the Hero’s Journey

The kids call this “main character syndrome” — but when we’re out to accomplish a goal, we’re only thinking about our needs and wants. Whether the user is booking a trip or launching a business with your digital product, they’re your Batman, Wonder Woman, or Luke Skywalker as long as they’re using your interface.

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Let’s break down the hero’s journey to see how it could apply to your digital product.

Ordinary World

• Call to adventure: The user stumbles upon your product and takes in the information.
• Refusal of the call: The user may have trepidations about taking the first step. How will you incentivize them to begin the journey?
• Meeting the mentor: Your chatbot or onboarding process is your Obi-wan Kenobi. Show the user they’ll have a guide along the way.
• Crossing the threshold: The user heeds the call by creating an account or beginning the conversion process.

Unknown World

• Tests, allies, and enemies: Gauge the user’s wants, needs, and ability levels, direct them towards what they want, and steer them away from what they don’t.
• Approaching the inmost cave: The user’s doubts and fears may crop back up before they move forward. How will you help them soothe those anxieties?
• The ordeal: The user draws upon their skills and past experiences to accomplish their goal, buy a product, start a campaign, etc.
• The reward: Reward the user with any incentives you provided earlier (product discounts, a month of free membership, etc.)

Back to the Ordinary World

• The road back: Reward in hand, how do you help the user get back to “the ordinary world” (AKA, the starting point)?
• The resurrection: How do you incentivize the user to come back to your product?
• Return with elixir: How do you get the user to keep seeing your product in a positive light? How will you represent how they’ve improved or succeeded on their journey?
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Learn to Love Editing

The first draft of a story is never perfect, EVER. Your favorite novel probably went through several rounds of edits by the author, their peers, or their publishing company.

When the novel is finally released, that’s it (at least, until the publishers decide to run a re-release). If there are typos and grammatical errors, you can’t fix them and automatically publish like you can on a WordPress site.

But with storytelling in UX, your product and content can go through several iterations until the story is flawless and leaves a lasting impression on the user.

Yes, internal reviews, user testing, and revisions take some time. But it’s a valuable opportunity to polish and fine-tune your product’s story.

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Focus on World-Building

If we’ve said it before, we’ll say it again...Version 1 of your digital product is just the beginning. It’s up to you if the saga continues.

You don’t have to plan out an entire extended universe like Marvel, Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings, but think about how you can build upon the existing story with a sequel. It could be a new product that answers a different user need or a feature that gives your product a whole new layer of usefulness.

Sequels get a bad reputation for never being as good as the original, so proceed with caution. Do lots of research and spend plenty of time at the drawing board before releasing your own The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, or Shrek 2.

Just like a business grows and improves, so does the user. They have the potential to discover new abilities and possibilities in the digital world. Always be thinking long-term instead of reveling around in your short-term success.
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Using Storytelling in UX to Make Meaningful Products

There’s an intention behind everything in UX. Every button, color, link, and word is meticulously placed to engage and guide users through their journey. And nothing makes a user feel more “seen” than a relatable story.

After all, whenever you’re talking to a friend and they start telling a story, they’re not trying to direct the attention back to themselves. That’s them trying to relate to you and empathize with your struggles.

Through storytelling in UX, you give the product more context and create a sense of familiarity with the user (even when there’s no actual human interaction). Your product story, both in and outside the interface, is the heart and soul of the user experience.

A functional, good-looking product is only half the battle in UX design. Use storytelling to give it a colorful past, immersive present, and promising future.

Need help fleshing out your story? Our designers and UX writers know how to really paint a picture with words and visuals. 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?

10 Popular Digital Product Design Elements:

• Consistency
• Exciting product messaging
• Minimal user input
• Focused actions
• Strong visual hierarchy
• Sleek UI design
• Personalized experiences
• Eye-catching animation
• Reduced decision-making
• Straightforward features
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What are Digital Products?

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?
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What are the 10 Must-Have Digital Product Design Elements?

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.

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Consistency

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.

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Minimal User Input

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.

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Exciting Product Messaging

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: 

• Communicate the function of each screen
• Guide the user through each step to accomplish their goal
• Persuade the user of the importance of your product
• Empathize with the user and offer solutions to problems
• Add nuance to your brand identity
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Focused Actions

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.

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Strong Visual Hierarchy

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.

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Personalized Experiences

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.

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Eye-Catching Animation

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).

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Reduced Decision-Making

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.

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Straightforward Features

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.

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Sleek UI 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.

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So, How do I Incorporate These Into My Product?

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!