Uncommon UX insight

During a phone call with a potential client today they invited me to a screen share to walk through aspects of the project. This happens a lot in my line of work, and I've been on both sides of the share screen countless times.

One of the anxieties that lingers in the back of my head when I start sharing my screen is forgetting to stop sharing and continuing on with my day, diving into some embarrassing email from a friend or plodding along on Facebook or Twitter.

Amusingly, I got a glimpse into wha that scenario would look like from the other side today when I watched said prospective client Google my name as we were talking. They had clearly forgotten their screen was being shared.

This site is the first thing that pops up — not my business. I couldn't help it and had to say something. We both laughed and I was able to direct them to the correct site. They had simply wanted to look at some of my other work while we were talking.

More interestingly I then got a chance to watch them try to find my portfolio on the correct site. On that site I have one page labeled “clients” — effectively the portfolio — and another labeled “projects” for open-source projects and other endeavors.

I was surprised when they navigated straight to the projects page! I told them they should look at the clients page for a more complete list. Later I though, maybe it would make more sense to consolidate those pages and possibly rename the section to “work” or “portfolio” or something s little more clear.

Two takeaways from this experience: always be mindful of when you're sharing your screen and there's no better UX review for a website sometimes than sitting someone down in front of your site and watching them try to use it!