Today I learned
State of Usability in 2023
Last year I subscribed to the Smashing Magazine Newsletter ↗ , and it was a great decision. The authors share useful front-end & UX bits once a week, and I could always learn something from them or find something interesting.
In a recent edition ↗ they shared what frustrates users the most, but also what delights them the most.
The key takeaways by the authors concerning the frustrations were that users generally don't trust websites. They are most frustrated by pop-ups, modals, push notifications, access to camera/microphone/photos, or install app prompts.
The authors derive from that that many users see websites as unfriendly and hostile and therefore see a need to block everything that a website wants from them.
That is understandable. However, a lot of website opening experiences today could be better. Often before you can even start to consume the content, you get asked to allow cookies, subscribe to the newsletter, and allow push notifications; please disable your ad blocker and better install their native app.
It's our job as people who make websites to do better and try to make them friendly and trustworthy again.
But not everything is terrible. Users are delighted by a calm, fast and accessible experience. They like it when the text and the input elements are large and when they get helpful error messages. In general, users are delighted when they are in control and when a website is easy to use and does what they expect it to do.
This State of Usability shows a lot of great insights. It shows what not to do if you don't want to frustrate your users and what to do to make your users happy about the experience of visiting your website.
I hope you enjoyed this post and learned something new. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter Opens in new tab or via Email Opens in new tab.
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