This app s*cks! — Why you still see bad UX in digital products
Sep 2, 2024
“Isn’t that a bit harsh?” One of my Business Analysts said as we were discussing a product strategy about a feature we were building.
For full context, this feature was to notify a customer that their enrolled co-dependent on their account was removed and they will have to add them (again) manually. As an advocate for user experience, it was natural for me to set scenarios that users might encounter.
What didn’t make sense:
This will only be shown 2–4 times once they’ve logged in. It means if you logged in twice today, you’ll see it twice as long as the cap number for the notification to show is not reached yet.
The total number of times this notification is shown will be fully relied on 2–4 times.
For the team; it is not an urgent action.
The reset of enrollees might create confusion on the user’s perspective if an enrolled user just randomly disappear so why are we so reserved on the copywriting?
Why are we treating our users like kids? How is setting reminders harsh for our users?
Why is this design effort so important?
On top of all other things to build, we were dead set on adding this feature as this was highly misinterpreted by the users — which is, as a company’s growth, affecting the ROI of the business.
Why does it matter?
It’s no secret that UX in the Philippines is slowly building up but we’re still treated as a support, a third-tier group handy for aesthetics and idea blocks — which at some level, I do agree.
I’ve compared the UX career I had in Singapore and the Philippines — and the end-to-end experience (no pun intended) is unparalleled at best.
In PH, designers are treated as a support aspect and not really knowing where their impact leads unless, of course, it’s to create screens.
Is it our fault?
It was a habit of mine to buddy-up with my designers just to see how they communicate or how their design process flow works and what I’ve fairly observed is a designer’s reluctance to say “No.”
Maybe we’ve given up
Designers are overshadowed by politics that any business brings. We get it. Everyone’s idea is a win but is it still a win when we sacrifice the well-being of employees because of ego?
Now, back to my design feature dilemma above
The solution that I’ve built for this feature should cover a ‘30–60 days’ plan wherein the user will be notified with a sequence of reminders:
In the end, this solution was shut down. No ‘30–60 days’ plan was implemented. The maximum amount of users will be notified about their enrolled joint users 2–4 times. And so we moved on to the next feature.
So to answer why we still see bad UX in digital products?
Everyone has an opinion about design and that’s pretty normal. Even if a designer or a group in a company — even, truly embraces a user-centric approach. We will always be overshadowed by decisions that might not work for the business or a solution which might not be paralleled with the current technologies that your company uses. It’s always comparing pros and cons.
What I truly believe in though; is that bad design catches up.
And to end this article…
Do not be afraid to voice out your thoughts and continuously advocate for your users. A “No” is the worst you can get. You did your part. Learn to detach your emotions from the designs you built and will build. Designing with intention is already a big win.
