What is usability testing?
A check on whether a new person can use your product or service. The button can work and the visitor can still have no idea why to click it. I look for that second kind of problem.
Usability testingfor products and services
I use your product or service like a new visitor and tell you where I got confused, stalled, or lost trust.
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Live session in your product
What is usability testing?
A usability test checks whether a new person can actually use your product or service. That is a different question from whether it technically works.
Someone who does not know what you offer tries to do the job you promise, then writes down what the visit was like. Some people call that user testing. The useful part is where the experience was clear, and where it fell apart.
A stranger arrives and either gets through or gets stuck. The stuck parts are often ordinary. The page loads. The buttons respond. The person still cannot tell what to do.
I do that visit myself. You get the notes while the first impression is still fresh.
A concrete example
The signup button can work perfectly and still fail
The click fires. The account is created. From a technical point of view, nothing is broken. The visitor still does not understand why they should click, what they will get, or what they are supposed to do on the next screen.
That is a usability problem. It will not show up in a bug tracker. It shows up as a person who leaves.
You know your product too well
You live in the product every day. That is how you ship. It is also why a first visit is so hard to see.
How it feels to you
Familiarity fills in the gaps
- You know where everything is, so you never have to hunt
- The labels make sense because you wrote them
- You already know the intended flow, so you skip the confusing parts
- You have clicked through the friction hundreds of times, so it no longer registers
- When something is unclear, you recover, because you already know the product
How it feels to a new visitor
They do not have your map
- They are seeing every screen for the first time
- Your internal words read like jargon
- They only have the path in front of them
- A stall you click past is where they leave
- If the next step is not obvious, they do not guess their way through. They stop.
What I test
I do not try to cover every screen. I use the product the way a new customer would, and I stay on the moments that decide whether they continue.
First impression
Can a new visitor tell what the product does, and who it is for, without already knowing?
Signup
Can someone create an account without guessing what the form wants or why it failed?
Onboarding
Does the product make the next step obvious, or drop a new user on an empty screen?
Main task
Can a new user finish the main thing the product promises, without you in the room?
Navigation
Can they find what they came for, or do the menus only make sense from the inside?
Important features
Are the features you care about understandable the first time someone meets them?
Forms and inputs
Are fields, validation, errors, and what happens after submit actually clear?
Payments
Are pricing, trials, checkout, and billing understandable when money is involved?
Errors and failures
When something goes wrong, can I tell what happened and what to do next?
Trust
Are there moments that make the product feel unreliable, unfinished, or confusing?
What a usability test can find
These are the kinds of things that show up when someone uses the product cold. I write what I actually ran into. I do not claim to find every issue.
Unclear value proposition
I read the headline twice and still could not say what the product did.
Confusing navigation
Settings, Workspace, and Account all looked like they might hold the thing I needed.
Unclear call to action
The main button said Get started. I could not tell if that meant signup, a demo, or a video.
Signup friction
The form rejected me with "Invalid input" and never said which field was wrong.
Onboarding dead ends
After signup I landed on a blank dashboard. No prompt. No sample. No obvious first move.
Unexplained errors
Saving failed with a code and a close button. I had no idea whether my work was still there.
Hard-to-find features
The export I needed was an unlabeled icon in the corner. I found it by trying things.
Unclear pricing
Three tiers, and nothing said which one included the feature the homepage had just promised.
Unexpected behavior
I clicked Save. The page jumped back to a list, with no sign the change had stuck.
Confusing terminology
The site said projects. The app said boards. I did not know if I was supposed to create both.
Missing information
Checkout asked for a company name and never said whether a solo founder could leave it blank.
Broken flows
The invite link opened a login page. After I logged in, I was not taken back to the invite.
No idea what to do next
The empty state said "Nothing here yet" and offered no action. I stopped.
How the test works
You send a link. I use the product myself and write down the visit. You read the report before you pay.
Send your link
Share the link and tell me what matters most. A signup, a checkout, a feature you just shipped. I do not need a demo from you.
I use it
I sign up and use the product without a walkthrough. I approach it like a new visitor. One person, full attention.
You get the report
I write down what worked, what stalled me, and what I would fix first. You see it before you pay.
What you get
Notes from one session. Short enough to read, specific enough that you know what I was doing when something felt wrong.
- A session summary of what I tried, and whether I got there
- Observations from the actual visit
- Screenshots where a picture is clearer than another sentence
- What happened, written the way it happened
- Why it matters for someone on a first visit
- An impact level: high, medium, or low
- A practical recommendation for each finding
- Findings ordered so you know what to look at first
Who usability testing is for
Founders and small teams who need a cold visit, especially when nobody's job is to watch a new user get stuck.
SaaS founders
You want a stranger's first session, not another opinion from inside the company.
Solo founders
There is nobody else to watch a new user get stuck and tell you plainly.
Startups
You are shipping faster than anyone can re-walk the product with fresh eyes.
Small product teams
A few people building, and no one whose job is to watch a new user struggle.
Before launch
The first public visit has not happened yet. You can still change it.
After a redesign
The old path is gone. The new one has only been used by people who built it.
New onboarding
You changed the first steps and need to know if a stranger still reaches value.
Signup and checkout
The flows that have to work the first time, because there is no second chance in them.
When to test
A usability test is worth doing when a stranger is about to use your product or service and you cannot watch them.
Before launch
While you can still change the first impression, before strangers form it on their own.
After a redesign
The screens look right to the people who designed them. A cold visit will tell you if they work.
After a major feature
Once the new thing is in front of real signups, not only in a branch you already understand.
After onboarding changes
The first session is where most products quietly lose people. Check it after you touch it.
Before paid traffic
You are about to pay for visits to a flow you have only ever used yourself.
When people drop off
The numbers say they leave. They do not say what it felt like to be on that screen.
When you suspect confusion
Something feels off and you cannot see it, because you are too close to the product.
After the product has changed
Your memory of how it works is out of date. A new visitor is not using that memory.
A real person, not an automated check
A lot of usability testing services hand you a crawler, a panel, or a generated write-up. I use your product or service and tell you what happened to me.
Automated tools can catch
- Broken links
- Pages that load slowly
- Technical errors
- Accessibility violations a checker can flag
A real person notices
- “I don't understand what this means.”
- “I don't know what I'm supposed to do next.”
- “I expected this button to do something else.”
- “This looks like it worked, but I don't trust that it did.”
- “I wouldn't know where to start.”
Usability testing is not a UX audit
People use the two terms as if they were the same job. They are not.
A UX audit is often a broader review: a set of screens, a list of principles, sometimes a plan for research or a redesign. That can be the right project when you want that scope.
Second Look is narrower on purpose. One person uses the product and reports what happened. You get the stalls, the confusion, and the trust breaks from that visit. You do not get a research program, and you do not get a redesign.
If you want someone to study your users over weeks, hire for that. If you want a cold usability test of the product you have now, send the link.
What this does not include
One person in a browser, telling you how the visit felt. That is the whole service.
- Security audits
- SEO audits
- Performance benchmarks
- Automated QA
- Full regression testing
- UX redesigns
- Accessibility audits
Low risk pricing
I use your product first. You see the report before you pay. If I don't find anything, you owe nothing.
Early bird pricing
$49$29
One-time payment
I go first. You pay only if I find something.
I use your product and send the full report before you pay. If I don't find anything, you owe nothing.
- One product
- A real person, not software
- Main customer journey
- Daily-driver features
- Signup and onboarding
- Payments and trials when relevant
- Written feedback report
Slots open soon. Join the waitlist and lock in $19. I go first every time.
Before you ask
What the test covers, what I need from you, and when you pay.
What do you test?
The path a new visitor takes: first impression, signup, onboarding, the main task, and whatever you tell me matters most. I do not click through every settings page.
Who performs the test?
I do. Second Look is a one-person usability testing service. I sign up in a desktop browser, the way a new customer would.
Is this automated or AI-powered?
No. I sign up, use the product, and write what happened. No bots, no scripted crawlers, no crowd panel.
What can you test?
Products and services a new customer would try in a browser. SaaS, tools, dashboards, booking flows, client portals, and the sites around them. If there is nothing to use, send the link and I will say so.
Do I need to prepare anything?
The URL. I make my own account. For a paid area, a demo login or a coupon helps.
How long does testing take?
Usually a few business days after I have the link and your note. I confirm the timing when you reach out.
What does the report include?
What I tried, what happened, why it matters, an impact level, and what I would fix first. Screenshots when they make a finding easier to see.
Can you test before launch?
Yes. Before launch is often the right time, while you can still change what a first visitor will hit.
Is usability testing the same as a UX audit?
No. This is one person using the product and writing up the visit. It is not a research project and it is not a redesign.
Do you test mobile?
No. I work in a desktop browser, the way many buyers try software before they pay.
Do you fix the problems you find?
No. I tell you what I ran into. You and your team decide what to change.
You only get one first impression
Send me the link. I will use it like a new visitor and tell you what I find.