As a designer you can run into a lot of conflicts. What do I think looks the best? What do they think looks the best? I understand this but will they be able to comprehend? These are all valuable questions that designers face. For that, I am going into 3 common areas in which most designers either take sink or swim!

1) Assuming the User Understands
I don’t have the statistical research, but this is one of the biggest problems designers face today. As developers and designers we tend to take our own knowledge of what we understand for granted. Do all users know this type of link goes here? Is it common knowledge a house means that you will go to the index or home page?

Take into deep consideration how much your design speaks to the user. It is a safe route to break down navigation as simple as possible, add visulizations and tool-tips where needed, and to place objects where users can easily see them.

All and all - your design should tell the user what to do. That tends to eliminate the confusion.

2) Small Text Sucks. Period!
One of the biggest issues I have with design is small text. It could be the fact that I’m very close to being legally blind. Just think about it. Your site or application is used by the 17-50 year-old range. Will all of your users have the same eye sight? Will they even look at your site on the same screen resolution? This was especially an issue during the Dot Com days as Verdana with font-size 10px being the forerunner. Now, bigger text is in with the whole Web 2.0 movement.

Of course - your users could probably utilize the zoom feature in their browser. How convenient is that though? Remember folks - this is all about the user experience!

3) Your Browser Isn’t The Only One Bud
I really didn’t think it was such a problem ,but there are many designers that don’t think to test their applications in various browsers. This site is included! There are some subtle differences between all browsers that can hamper the user experience. It may seem like the tiniest fragment but trust me - it will hurt a lot more than you imagine.

Test, Test, Test! That’s the only way you can assure that your site is your site no matter the environment.

And we close…..
Those are three elements that can be overlooked, assumed, or can even lack the proper attention. Remember - every element put into your web site/ applicaiton interface dictate how your users will effectively use it. Your users can use it proudly. Yet again, they can move on to the next search result due to frustration.