Most users nowadays access websites and web applications on their mobile devices. Likewise, a large percentage of users abandon websites that take more than three seconds to load. Hence, it becomes essential for web developers to create websites accessible on multiple browsers, platforms and devices. At the same time, they also need to focus on the website’s functionality, performance, usability, security, and searchability to boost user experience and increase conversion rate. But often the mistakes committed by the developers affect the user experience delivered by the web applications directly and adversely. The web developers must identity and avoid all such mistakes to make the website deliver optimal user experience.
7 Mistakes that May Affect a Web Application’s User Experience Directly
1) Not Reducing Bandwidth Usage
The choice of network differs from one user to another. Most people nowadays access web applications over 3G or 4G connection. Hence, the amount of bandwidth required by the website increases its loading time and affects its user experience. The developers can easily optimize bandwidth usage by optimizing size and resolution of images, minifying JavaScript and CSS files, and enabling server side compression. But they must reduce bandwidth consumption to enhance the web application’s user experience and engagement.
2) Not Enabling Browser Cache
The developers can easily enhance the user experience delivered by the web application by enabling browser caching. But often programmers forget to implement browser cache during development process. When they enable browser cache the performance of the website increases significantly due to lesser number of HTTP request. Also, the browser can load the website quickly by accessing HTML content, images and media files from the cache. The programmers can always implement full browser cache to make the website load faster and keep visitors engaged.
3) Not Repairing Navigation Issues
Nowadays users love websites that enable them to collect relevant information without any hassle or delay. The developers can easily keep the users engaged by designing the website with font type, format, and size compatible with multiple browsers. Likewise, they also need to enable users to navigate from one section or page of the website to another seamlessly. They can easily include a search box in each page to make it easier for users to find the required information. Likewise, the website must have a sitemap to make the web pages user friendly. The developers must make the website navigable across multiple devices. Also, they must identify and repair all navigation issues to keep the users engaged and reduce website abandonment.
4) Not Focusing on Scalability
Often developers build custom web applications according to predefined business requirements. They forget to focus on making the website scalable and consider expansion possibilities. That is why; the programmers have to rewrite the web application in future to meet revised business requirements and cater growing website traffic. The developers can easily make the web application scalable by synchronizing all required services and arranging external storage space. They also need to keep the source code of the application flexible and readable to accommodate the required changes and address scalability issues more efficiently.
5) Not Validating User Input Completely
Most developers validate user input at both client-side and server-side to keep the web application secure. But the developers often forget to validate each input submitted by users. The developers can easily implement client-side and server-side validation by availing the features provided by various web frameworks and tools. For instance, they can easily validate the user input at client side by taking advantage of the validation rules provided by the front-end development tools. Likewise, they can validate the user input at the server-side by using the annotations provided by various server-side tools. The programmers must implement client-side and server-side user input validation to protect the web application from targeted malware attacks.
6) Not Testing the User Experience Elaborately
Most modern users access websites and web applications on their mobile devices. But there are still many people who access websites on their desktop or laptop computers. Likewise, the choice of device, platform, browsers, and internet connectivity differs from one user to another. That is why; it becomes essential for web developers to evaluate the user experience delivered by the website across varying devices, platforms, browsers, and networks. Likewise, they must identify and repair all 404 issues in the website to keep the visitors engaged. Often developers forget to test the web application during development process. But they can easily get the defects and performance issues repaired if the web application is tested throughout the development process.
7) Ignoring Search Engine Guidelines
The search engine ranking and visibility of a website nowadays affects its user experience. Most enterprises implement search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to make the website receive regular search engine traffic. But the developers can easily enhance the search engine visibility of the website by following various search engine guidelines. For instance, they can optimize the website for mobile devices and increase its load time to meet the metrics used by Google for ranking websites. The developers can always follow the latest search engine guidelines and recommendation to make the web application popular within a short amount of time.