Critique: Amateur looking buttons with icons?

Question

I am working on a CMS with the feature to 'follow' and also the option to see stats.

There are 2 buttons, and the stats value becomes 1.2k etc after it reaches over 1000.

I have added some icons, and trying to keep the design flat and simple but something doesn't feel right.

Im going to try making the icons smaller, but other than that, any ideas?

Perhaps icon on the right?

EDIT, I am going to run a test where by I remove the text and simply have the heart and the stats button. I'll have a tool top when hovering, and it might also make things more consistent when the media queries kick in.

Answer 1

There is a certain point in a long design process where it's easy to fall into the trap of overthinking what you're doing. Different parts of the design seem like they could be better, you aren't sure how, exactly, but maybe if... At that point, you begin an endless (and pointless) round of tweaks that as often as not end up uglifying what was fine to start with.

I suspect that's where you are now, because that looks as fine to me as it does to Yisela and boblet. I would counsel taking a long step back, spending some quality time with the cat/dog/iguana, and coming back to it after you've put some mental distance between you and all the detailed work you've been doing. Look at it freshly, from about 9 feet (3 metres -- gotta keep up with metric) away, as if you'd never seen it before. If anything really needs a fix, you'll see it clearly.

There's an old artists' trick of looking at a painting or drawing in the mirror, to get a fresh perspective on it. This is a variation on that theme.