UI Review
As a solo developer, it can be easy to lose focus when it comes to designing a product. Sure, I know exactly what I want, but I also need to satisfy customer needs when the product becomes available in iTunes.
Through the local cocoaheads group I setup a UI/UX review and decided to present my next product for review. It was a good meeting, there was a lot of thoughtful feedback and criticism (and when I say criticism, I don’t mean the negative connotation but the ‘thoughtful critique’ sense).
It can certainly be difficult to accept some of the criticism and feedback, but I just took everything in as points to consider. I agreed with some of the points, other points were not something I wanted to change right now but would consider doing so in the future. Other changes were simply paths I had no desire to follow.
During these types of meetings it’s important to not get defensive or spend any time justifying yourself. Make sure to ask open-ended clarifying questions. The goal is to get an outside view of a product that you may have been too focused on.
Even though this product is just about alpha now, a review certainly provided helpful feedback. Realistically though, you would want feedback much earlier in the development process.