5 Digital Experience Mistakes Business Leaders Need to Stop Making: Experts Weigh In
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Business leaders in the UK are investing millions in digital transformation, yet many still struggle to deliver a seamless experience. By 2025, it won’t be enough to have digital tools. They need to work well for your users. If they don’t, people will leave.
Interestingly, over 80% of consumers in the UK abandon their purchases after a bad online experience. These issues are not just technical problems; they reflect failures in business. Many common mistakes lead to these experiences.
From poor user experience to misunderstanding user needs, let’s explore five common misconceptions about digital experiences that hinder growth and erode customer trust.
Keep reading.
The Most Common Digital UX Myths Holding You Back
Here are the five most common digital UX myths that’s holding you back:
Myth 1: Thinking Design Is Just About Looks
Many people still view design as merely colours, logos, or fonts. However, there is much more to it. Structure, usability, and accessibility are often ignored, but that’s where the real value lies.
Design is not just decoration. It affects how a product works, feels, and guides users. When done right, it makes things easier to use, makes sure everyone can access them, and creates a smoother overall experience.
Including design early in the process leads to better products that users appreciate and that last over time.
What Experts Say:
“Too often, digital experience is treated like a finishing touch rather than a core business strategy,” the team at Whitespace explains. But the companies leading in 2025 are the ones building design thinking into every stage – from discovery to delivery.
If users feel frustrated or confused, the interface design won’t matter. What matters is whether they can quickly and easily get what they need.
And the data backs this up. According to McKinsey’s report on the Business Value of Design, companies that prioritise design can achieve growth rates that are twice as high as those of their competitors.
Myth 2: Ignoring the End-to-End Journey
Improving your landing page is crucial for capturing interest and driving sales. However, don’t overlook what happens afterwards. A complicated checkout process can ruin even the best landing page.
Too many form fields, limited payment options, or unclear steps can quickly lead to customers abandoning their carts. If customer support is slow or ineffective, such as with unresponsive chatbots or long wait times, customers will likely leave.
It’s also critical to address internal tools. When your marketing and customer service teams use different systems, it slows down efficiency. Combined messages and missing information can confuse customers and corrode their trust, prompting them to look for alternative options.
What Experts Say:
Joana de Quintanilha, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, advises that for customer journeys to work, they must be “unified, integrated, consistent, and clear.”
Forrester reports that companies providing consistent experiences experience 1.6 times better customer retention.
Myth 3: Leaving UX Until the Last Minute
When UX is added at the conclusion, projects encounter problems that could have been resolved sooner; and at a lower cost.
User testing must start during the discovery phase, rather than after the construction is almost completed.
What Experts Say:
Jakob Nielsen from Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) states that allocating roughly 10% of a project’s budget to usability efforts usually results in a twofold increase in usability.
Myth 4: Making Assumptions About User Needs
Leaders mostly think they understand their audience well. However, their assumptions may not reflect how people actually behave.
What works well in a system might not be helpful for real users.
What Experts Say:
“Testing our ideas helps teams quickly figure out what will work and what won’t,” says Teresa Torres, the author of Continuous Discovery Habits and a leader at Product Talk. She emphasises that teams should regularly check their ideas, stating:
“At the very least, have weekly interactions with clients… and do short research tasks to reach a specific goal.”
A recent study from Coremedia found that firms that prioritise customer experience are 60% more profitable than those that do not.
Myth 5: Treating Accessibility as a Nice-to-Have
Accessibility is crucial for keeping users happy and for running a successful business. Ignoring accessibility means losing users and could lead to legal issues.
What Experts Say:
Alistair Duggin, former Head of Accessibility at GOV.UK says: “Accessibility means that people can complete their tasks in about the same time and effort as those without disabilities.”
The 2025 WebAIM Million report found that 94.8% of the top one million home pages do not meet WCAG 2 standards. This means that all websites have noticeable accessibility problems.
Conclusion
The digital experience is no longer just about having a good-looking website. It now focuses on creating user-friendly systems that remove barriers and provide real value.
These five common mistakes are not just design problems; they are strategic errors that can lead to lost trust, slowed growth, and even a damaged reputation. Avoiding them is crucial if you want to stay competitive.
Now is the time to lead with knowledge. Get it right, and your online presence won’t just support your business; it will define it.
