21/12/2025
Want a brutal UX review? Spin your chair.
It sounds daft, but it’s the fastest way I know to spot why a portal, dashboard, or landing page feels “busy” and still doesn’t convert.
Here’s the test (do it now):
1) Put your screen on the page you care about
2) Move your chair back
3) Turn away for 5 seconds
4) Spin back and look for ONE second
What did your eyes land on first?
That first second is how most people experience your product.
They’re not studying it.
They’re scanning it.
When I do this with founders and ops leads, we usually find one of these three issues:
Mistake 1: Too many primary actions
If everything is screaming “click me”, nothing gets clicked.
Aim for one primary action per screen.
(Yes, you can still have secondary links, but they should behave like supporting actors, not the main character.)
Mistake 2: Everything is the same size
If headings, numbers, buttons and body text all look similar, your user has no map.
Give the important thing permission to be BIG.
Big headline.
Big number.
Big button.
Whitespace that lets it breathe.
Mistake 3: Your value is implied, not stated
Design polish rarely fixes confusion.
If your user can’t answer “What does this do for me?” in 5 seconds, they bounce. Especially on internal tools where people are already rushed and slightly annoyed.
Quick conversion checklist (steal this for your next portal/app/landing page):
- One clear headline that says who it’s for and what it solves
- One primary call-to-action
- Screenshots (not abstract promises)
- Proof (real testimonials, outcomes, names)
- Remove jargon until it hurts a little
This isn’t anti-design.
This is pro-clarity.
The funniest bit?
Most teams already know what’s wrong, but nobody wants to be the person who says:
“Maybe we should delete half the buttons.”
Be that person.
If you did the spin test on your key page, what did your eyes hit first - and was it the thing you actually want users to do?
