# Strip the small visual tells that make a product look unfinished

- Category: product
- Author: Raul (https://indie.md/people/raul/)
- Source: https://indie.md/events/indie-tm-11-timisoara-june-2026/
- Canonical URL: https://indie.md/advice/strip-the-tells-that-look-unfinished/

The room's roast of eBaza was not about features, it was about two small tells: emojis sprinkled through the interface and a colored left border on the cards that read as a default framework accent rather than a deliberate choice. Neither breaks anything, and that is precisely why they are dangerous. They are the quiet signals that whisper "template" or "AI draft" to a user who cannot articulate why a page feels unfinished. Polish at this stage is mostly subtraction, removing the stock flourishes that come free with the tools you built on, because a stray emoji and an unconsidered accent border are the fastest way to look like everyone else's first draft. Walk your own interface hunting for the things you did not decide on purpose, and delete them. The credibility you need in a payment or trust flow is built out of exactly these small, unglamorous removals.