Limitations of Mobile for UX Design

Understanding the limitations of mobile for UX design can help amuse and convert customers. While an inefficacy can lead to lost revenue and fewer chances of visitors coming back. This is all in terms of the links, intuitive navigation, and concise texts.

User experience or UX is a web concept that goes beyond the standard ones which need to be reliable, functional, and convenient. Excellent UX also entails its enjoyability and other positive experiences with regards to physical, emotional, and mental aspects of interacting with the digital tool. All these are also discussed in the previous article, Understanding UX Design.

UX design is also necessary for mobile devices. Such devices have changed our way of living and doing daily activities. Not only can we access virtually any kind of material on the mobile phone, but today we can do almost any transaction done electronically with most mobile devices without stepping out on your doorstep. The emergence of this modern technology has made some of these things easier: the smartphone.

This is why mobile UX design should prioritize strategies, designs, and implementations. Simple designs, linear interfaces, and simple buttons are required. But there are various limitations challenges to mobile UX, not only the interface but also the context or situation of the user. Some of them are here.

Mobile User’s Design Context and Interruption

There have been controversies about whether the current situation of the user. Such as sitting on the couch vs rushing to a meeting, affects the way they use their devices. In general, mobile users are goal-oriented. The device that they use can quickly answer questions, let them check emails, find information, and many more. This means they frequently have a purpose when they take out their phones and use them.

They are also time conscious. They often look for urgent or time-sensitive information like answers to questions being asked by a boss, the address they are looking for, and many more. This means answers are supposed to be available quickly. 

But sometimes, mobile devices are only used for entertainment or to kill time. Here, content is very much crucial.  

The solution here lies in the user, brand, and web asset, where only the last two can be controlled by you. Because in a variety of contexts and cirmcumstances they use phones. When using these tools, we are more likely to be disrupted, whether internally or externally. The average duration of the phone session is currently 72 seconds.

Saving the history of UX Software

Designers must save context to make restarting an interruptive process simpler for users. The mobile app or website must always be in good condition and prepared for this kind of disruption. It should also try to make the transfer as smooth as possible back to the app/website. It is essential that before the interruption, the client does not have to redo the work already done.

Moreover, to avoid interruption or closing the app/mobile site, one must always look credible. The content must look professional and beautiful with prominent phone numbers and addresses where they are easy to locate, as well as an informative and personal ‘about us’. It’s also good to find a few pictures and profiles of employees to add personality to the page

Small Screens

Phone screens tolerate much less content compared to mobile screens and even laptop screens. Even the biggest smartphones have much smaller screens than the standard laptop and tablets. As a result, the user has a much smaller window that will show them and let them understand the website despite the modern trend toward larger phone screens. It’s going to be hard to get an overall impression of your product or services.

That’s why simplification is critical. Just display the necessary information. Note that while the mobile resource contains the same data as the desktop counterpart, it does not need to be displayed in the same format.

Take out some elements! It is recommended that web portals need not be as complex as your product or service. In fact, most customers only want your basic information. 

However, when you try to push out some elements, you have to think thoroughly about the opportunity if the “simplified” element. What does it mean to consumers, for example, when you take element B out to include element A? Does element A matter more than element B? Prioritization of content and functionality is important. Perhaps the answers depend on the types of users and tasks you have.

No Keyboards and Mouses

Why is this a downside when it comes to mobile UX? It’s because it will be more difficult to operate fluidly and accurately than desktop computers. Even if the smartphone is a touchscreen, there are still various disadvantages. it’s easy to make unintended touches, for example. Some may leave the client uncertain about what happened and worried about it.

To resolve this, exploration is important. Let the user feel in control of the website by some techniques like using the same icons on the website you would on the mobile app for quicker relearning, feedback or ensuring that it is clear when they perform an action through visual cues or animations and helping them through predictive texts. Additionally, to streamline UX, eliminate as much manual feedback as possible.

Weak Connection or Hardware

We all know that mobile apps are built to be effective from top to bottom. Typically, apps have shorter load times than web pages because they are not cluttered with unnecessary elements of the internet. They get even slower due to slow internet connection, especially in developing countries. And the slowness also comes from the computer itself. The slower the components are, the more simple the phone is.

Slow connection or hardware are uncontrollable by the designer and marketer, so the only thing that will help up the speed is to try and keep the content and actions on the same page to ensure better performance as there are fewer page loads.

Review

Better UX is a perfect way to stand out and give yourself a competitive advantage over the others on the market. If your online mobile features are easy, fun, intuitive and awesome to use, your customers won’t have any reason to look elsewhere.

Nevertheless, there are inherent limitations on mobile smartphones: small screen, short sessions, single window at once, and adjustable connectivity

To make the most out of the beneficial changes that mobiles offer, most businesses pay top dollar for native app development. However, if you consider this option, it will cost you a lot of time and money before it becomes a success. 

© Image credits to Anni Roenkae