I tested my own website in German because I knew it too well.

I recently put my idea of a website in front of a much larger audience than I was used to. The feedback was pretty clear: people had no idea what was going on. I intentionally keep the site in Polish. I thought and believed that the meaning doesn't have to be clear, but the interface must be. I failed SO BAD. All this time I've been confusing the intentional confusion with good UX - jokes write themselves. Obviously I knew what was what, what these buttons do, how to navigate around the station. I had no idea how to start this until a thought popped up: ME having language friction here. I've translated the whole site into German and oh boy, all I see is BEWEGUNG , VON DER WAND ENTFERNEN , SENDERSPEICHER . After rethinking and making the UI simpler, I didn't really have a lot of words to begin with. Not necessary ones, at least. It really made me think I should show some stuff much earlier (latest "exposure" was brutal but I am very thankful for the learning experience). More importantly I was left with a question I don't really have a lot of answers to: How do you forget? How do you make your own stuff unfamiliar, giving that "first experience" vibe? Do you have any weird tricks for doing this yourself? Before After simplifying the UI