Nobody leaves a website thinking "the UX was bad." They think "I couldn't find what I wanted" or "this is taking too long" or they just leave. Bad UX doesn't announce itself. It just quietly loses you customers.

The UX mistakes that hurt most

1. Too many steps. Every extra click, page load, or form field is a chance for someone to bail. If buying your product takes eight screens, you'll lose people on screens three through seven. The best e-commerce sites have cut checkout to one or two steps. If your process has more, ask why.

2. Hidden information. Pricing behind a "contact us" form. Shipping costs revealed at the last step. Return policies buried in footers. Customers hate surprises, especially ones that feel like they were hidden on purpose.

3. Slow load times. Every second of load time costs conversions. This isn't theoretical. There's extensive research showing the relationship between page speed and bounce rate. If your page takes more than three seconds to load on mobile, you're losing people.

4. Confusing navigation. If users can't find what they're looking for within a few seconds, the navigation has failed. Too many categories, unclear labels, mega-menus with 80 items. All of these create decision paralysis.

5. Forms that fight you. Phone number fields that reject valid formats. Addresses that don't understand unit numbers. Date pickers that start in 1900. Error messages that say "invalid input" without saying why. Forms should help users succeed, not punish them for minor formatting differences.

6. No mobile optimisation. Not just responsive layout, actual mobile optimisation. Touch targets big enough to tap, text readable without zooming, forms that work with mobile keyboards, and functionality that doesn't require hovering.

Why they persist

Most of these aren't hard to fix technically. They persist because:

  • The people who built the site know where everything is, so navigation feels fine to them
  • Nobody tests with real users or on real devices
  • Business requirements keep adding "just one more field" to forms
  • Performance testing happens on fast office Wi-Fi, not 4G on a train

Fixing them

  1. Watch real users: Use session recordings or live user testing. Watching someone struggle with your site for five minutes teaches you more than a month of analytics.
  2. Test on actual devices: Not just browser dev tools. Real phones, real network speeds.
  3. Simplify relentlessly: For every form field, menu item, or step, ask "does this help the user accomplish their goal?" If not, remove it.
  4. Surface critical info early: Pricing, shipping, availability. Upfront, not buried.
  5. Measure speed: Use Google PageSpeed Insights. Set a budget. Hold to it.

Good UX isn't about making things pretty. It's about making things easy. Every barrier you remove is a customer you keep.

Kasun Wijayamanna Founder & Lead Developer Postgraduate Researcher (AI & RAG), Curtin University - Western Australia
UX DesignCustomer ExperienceBusiness Owners