Get a fresh pair of eyes on it

Usability isn’t something you can assess once and then assume everything else is fine. I’m feeling that in my own business. I’m back in the US after a really lovely trip to Denmark, and my voice is still a bit wrecked after going out for beers with friends. The sun was shining back home, Denmark was lovely, and it’s my birthday tomorrow. But right now, something entirely different is giving me a knot in my stomach: I don’t think Amino is user-friendly enough.

There are too many loose ends. Little things here and there that don’t work properly. The other day, a user on Amino Freelancer, a woman who knows about usability, pointed out some completely obvious mistakes. My reaction was: Fuck, man, how the hell can we make those mistakes?

Usability requires others to see it from the outside

It isn’t just that one service. I can see silly little things all over what we’ve made. Something isn’t logical. The same function is described differently in different services. A process doesn’t lead naturally to the next step. There are small mistakes in the design and workflows that make things harder than they need to be.

And it annoys me even more because I go around telling others their online shops and websites need to be user-friendly. So I have to ask myself too: Martin, for fuck’s sake, why isn’t yours good enough?

We’re growing fast, and that’s my choice

Part of the explanation is that Amino is expanding a little faster than is good for it. That’s a strategic decision I’ve made. I want to create lots of different services and close off openings for potential competitors.

That means things move fast, especially when there are only six of us. It explains some of it, but it doesn’t make the mistakes any less annoying for the people using it.

The other part of the explanation is that I’m not a usability expert as such. None of us really are. I can easily look at someone else’s website and point out something that doesn’t work. But there’s a significant difference between coming in from outside and having been deeply involved in the work yourself.

After a hundred hours, you know all the routines

On Amino Freelancer alone, I’ve spent well over a hundred hours on planning and everything else around the solution. When you develop one thing after another, you learn all the routines. You know exactly how it works.

That’s precisely the problem. At some point, it becomes very hard to see it from the outside. What’s obvious to you because you helped make it isn’t necessarily obvious to someone encountering it for the first time. Also read E-pusher about my experiences with online sales and usability.

That’s why it’s important to have someone else look at it. I think I’m heading towards finding a usability expert myself. But simply getting a fresh pair of eyes on what you’ve made means a hell of a lot.

A good sales letter can still be full of mistakes

It doesn’t just apply to websites. Perhaps you know it from a sales letter. You sit writing it and think it’s bloody good. Then you send it out and afterwards find out there are 17 spelling mistakes.

Then you think: What the hell? I got 13 in spelling, or whatever the grade is called today. How could I miss that? But that’s how it is. It’s hard to spot your own mistakes when you’ve been completely immersed in the text or the solution.

Even skilled authors who are good at spelling have someone else review their writing. An editor can offer feedback and someone to bounce ideas off. You need that even when you know your craft.

It hurts to admit it, but it has to be done

Today’s lesson to myself is that, however good you are at something, you need to let other people look at it. Otherwise, the work can become inward-looking, the mistakes stay put and it isn’t user-friendly enough.

It pains me to admit that much of what we’ve made at Amino simply isn’t good enough. Ouch. But that was deserved. So get a fresh pair of eyes on it. It’s a reminder to me, and perhaps you can use it too.