The Dreaded “Feature Creep” Projects that start with a clear focus can quickly find their user experience (UX) suffering as new content is added. One of the best defenses against this is to embrace the “mobile first” approach. Place the user at the center and set aside personal preferences.

Concentrating just on ROI Focus your efforts on building a culture of design and customer-centered thinking in your organization. The challenge of quantifying the return on investment of a good user experience results in UX often sitting low on the list of priorities. Companies like Apple, Amazon and Uber are clear indications of the value a good user experience brings to a brand.

Getting too comfortableThe diversity of device types, screen sizes and technologies means you must never stop testing - continue to validate your UX design to ensure you have a full understanding of how your product or website functions. Laziness at any step of the software development lifecycle can lead to usability issues or broken interaction.

Not listening to user feedback Listen (really listen!) to your users and trust that their behavior should inform your design decisions regardless of your personal preference. Understanding customer frustrations is the first step in fixing your UX.

Being too set in your ways There is no such thing as a finished product. Don’t be too proud that you don’t consider making changes in response to an ever-evolving market.

With a better understanding of common missteps, and the know-how on how to address them, businesses can deliver better user experiences that customers want (and expect) in today’s digital world.

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Thelton McMillian is the founder & CEO of Oakland, CA-based Comrade, a design and strategy agency that creates digital products and services like mobile and Web apps to help businesses improve their user experience. Thelton can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..