Sometimes You Just Need a Different Perspective

Last month I celebrated a milestone birthday. No big plans, no carefully organised event — just a last-minute invite to New York, a good flight deal, and a week later I was in Manhattan wondering how it all escalated so quickly.

28 hours to get there. 30 back. One week. Over 25km on foot.

Worth every single step.

The shot I almost didn't take

I came home with hundreds of photos. Almost no selfies — not really my thing. But one quick snap from The Summit, 93 floors up, sun on my face and New York spread out behind me, ended up being one of my favourites from the whole trip.

Not because it's technically brilliant. Because it was a different angle. A different perspective. One I nearly didn't bother with.

Why perspective matters — in travel and in work

There's something that happens when you step completely outside your normal environment. Your eyes adjust. You notice things differently. You stop looking at what's in front of you and start looking at the whole picture.

I think about this a lot in web design.

It's easy — especially when you're close to a project, or close to your own business — to stop seeing it the way a new visitor would. You know where everything is. You understand the jargon. You know what you meant when you wrote that headline.

Your potential customer doesn't.

Fresh perspective is one of the most underrated things in design. It's why working with someone outside your industry, or asking someone unfamiliar with your business to navigate your website, so often reveals things you'd completely stopped noticing.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is step back. Change your angle. Look at it from 93 floors up, metaphorically speaking.

On celebrating milestones

People talk a lot about how you should mark the big moments — in life and in business. I didn't plan anything. I just said yes to a last-minute invite.

Turns out that was exactly the celebration I needed. A change of scenery, a change of pace, and a reminder that the best things often come from being open rather than over-planned.

Not a bad lesson for business either.

Kati is the founder of Hot Lizard Designs, a web design studio based in Perth, WA, working with small businesses and specialists who want a website that actually does its job. If your website could use a fresh pair of eyes: