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The importance of an outside perspective

It often surprises me just how powerful a pair of “fresh eyes” can be. One prime example of this is a question one of our users asked me today during an IM conversation. Notice in the comments below (if there are any) that users can add in their profile information for Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, LinkedIn, and MySpace. Users can add this to their profile information at IntenseDebate.com. His question was this: why not include the start of the url for each of the services since that will be the same for every user?

Seems simple enough, right? Fairly obvious? Yet the truth is my team and I might never have thought of this helpful (though small) change that can simplify this process for all of our future users. Granted this won’t be a life changing moment for anyone, but this is just one example of a greater underlying principle.

The point is this: never underestimate the power of fresh eyes. Always be sure you’re taking feedback and asking for advice from someone new to the product/service. Their perspective will be completely different and will often have simple suggestions that make all the difference in usability.

Posted in General.

74 comments

By jon – December 18, 2007

74 Responses

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  1. Funky says

    funky strikes again

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  2. mello says

    new time

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  3. isaac_keyet says

    yay

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  4. jon says

    Cheese

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  5. isaac_keyet says

    test

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  6. jon says

    Great

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  7. jon says

    greek

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  8. jon says

    Open social

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  9. jon says

    New socks and shoes

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  10. Woot says

    yeah

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  11. isaac_keyet says

    test comment. (!)

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  12. jon says

    gt

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  13. jon says

    friend or foe?

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  14. burger says

    Mmmm…tasty

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  15. ataeww_wer18218 says

    test create acct

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  16. test etset test says

    test create acct 2

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  17. test says

    test

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  18. Fruit says

    Socks taste yummy

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  19. isaac_keyet910 says

    test reply..

    January 6, 2009, 4:34 am
  20. jon says

    You really \"think\" so? I\'m really happy.

    June 8, 2009, 1:12 pm
  21. jon says

    You really \"think\" so? I\'m really happy.

    June 8, 2009, 1:12 pm
  22. jon says

    another "reply" I'm happy to say

    June 8, 2009, 1:15 pm
  23. jon says

    Yet "another" reply. I'm so glad

    June 8, 2009, 1:15 pm

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Continuing the Discussion

  1. Jon Fox » Blog Archive » The Power of Collaboration linked to this post on January 15, 2008

    [...] Second, is that it provides a fresh perspective on your stale thoughts.  The longer you spend thinking/working on something on your own the more entrenched you become in a few initial assumptions/beliefs/ideas.  It quickly gets to the point that in your mind you no longer even consider any other possibilities.  Often I personally don’t even realize I’ve done it at all, but it very much shapes your future thinking as you can no longer think outside of these initial constraints.  By collaborating with someone who is not already in your frame of reference they can easily see, and point out, when these initial constraints are wrong or hindering. It’s a very similar idea to my previous post The importance of an outside perspective. [...]

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