5 Common Pitfalls of Bad Design

One must wonder, 'How do you become a hit with the masses?' or hell, maybe even, 'If Steve Jobs was still around, what would make him want to check out my product?' It's a good question, and a legitimate one. But quite frankly, I don't see what's so hard to understand.

For one, good design intended for mass consumption at an epic scale should to avoid these 5 common pitfalls:

1. Trying to Boil the Ocean: Many companies feel that over-saturating an experience with a wealth of features for sharing, information, and branding will sell the product. It won't.
2. Failing to Understand Context: People understand the world through a lens of 'what they know.' If you think everyone thinks the same way as you do, you couldn't be further from the truth.
3. Oversimplifying: Many may argue that lazy design is always good design. This is untrue. There are times when making archaic things 'pretty and simple' may actually strip the value of it altogether.
4. Marketing is Not UX: Mistaking branding and user experience as the same exact thing. The idea of marketing focuses on 'telling.' User experience, however, focuses on 'understanding.' 
5. Process Over Innovation: The best design ideas are often innovations pushed to the limit within a constrained environment. Companies often glorify the process of implementing these constraints and fail to understand what truly makes ideas shine; the simple feeling of accomplishment.