Hi there 👋 To those who are new to the Designer's course or have just recently started, I would like to share some suggestions.
Many designers still post what is considered to be the ideal design online, and as a result, they hardly ever get negative feedback on their work—only positive comments. If you're not willing to take constructive feedback from users or other observers, you're not a good designer.
In recent years, lean design and design sprints have essentially become standard practices. Nonetheless, it appears that a lot of aspiring designers think they can only create perfect designs. If it isn't ideal, it shouldn't be shared or used.
This always makes me wonder what the perfect design is. I believe that design is the change that makes things go constructively. It's challenging to arrive at a state of perfection where adjustments are no longer necessary. For this to occur, nothing that your notion interacts with can ever change.
Kindly share a concept or an example of perfect design in the comments section if you have one 😊.
No concept was delivered in a one-shot, one-opportunity situation.
Too often, I've witnessed the attitude that "we just have one shot and one chance." Seldom is such the case. Particularly when the outcomes of your design choices are simply reversible and involve little risk. I don't mean to sound partial, but I see a few design agencies doing this.
You should invest extra time and effort when an error has the potential to have a detrimental impact on people's lives as well as the entire planet. Two such businesses are the airline industry and the healthcare industry. It is necessary to examine the designs to make sure they are capable of withstanding every scenario without breaking. Prices would rise if perfection was pursued. The effect of sunk costs would therefore result in an endless cycle of aiming for impossibly high perfection and coming up short.
As a designer, would you want to take time to deliver just one design you see as perfect or try as many possible designs as possible?
Instead, try to follow the attitude of “It’ll do for now.” It is frequently the best course of action. Taking several shots at your goal while changing your focus after each shot is an excellent way to progress. following this course of action will help speed up learning and thus help the designs to evolve.
“Aren’t you going to be a perfectionist when it comes to design?” stated an investor or stakeholder.
When you share your design with stakeholders who demand perfection, you’ll find yourself in a lot of fascinating situations and debates.
We'll be posting comments like "I hope that is not your normal approach to everything design you do" and other similar remarks. You should feel horrible about not spending more time on the design before releasing it.
If a designer is unable to deliver flawless work, it could be perceived as indifference to the outcome 😞. But it's the complete opposite. If you wish to create the product, you'll want to share earlier design versions to accelerate the learning feedback loop 😊.
Educating clients and stakeholders is a necessary skill for designers. Help people realize that the new design they are seeing is only the beginning of a lengthy journey toward greatness.
Look for consistency rather than perfection.
A lot of young designers lack consistency in what they do, aiming for consistent delivery of value is way more important than perfection.
We need to be realistic as designers. We need to design strategies that provide the appropriate amount of value to address the identified need (s). We must constantly improve our designs so that they can facilitate faster learning for the entire team/organization in which we collaborate.
We can't let personal fixes impede the advancement of our designs.
My words are intended to hopefully reach a wide range of designers who may be working toward producing the ideal physical or digital product.