Why watching a live user session hurts (in a good way)

Reading bug reports or feedback forms is one thing, but watching someone actually open your app for the first time and struggle with things you thought were totally obvious is painful.

I sat behind a beta tester last week and watched them bypass our entire onboarding flow using some bizarre workaround I never could have imagined. It made me realize how trapped we get in our own design logic.

When was the last time a user session completely broke your assumptions about your own software?