Perfection will kill your design

Why good enough is the way to excellence and value

With this post, I want to share a piece of advice with people who are starting their journey on the Designer’s path or have recently started.

Approaches like the Lean Design and Design sprints have become more or less the norm these days. Yet, it seems many new designers think they should only deliver perfect designs. If it is not perfect then it should not be shared or implemented.

This often makes me wonder what is the definition of perfect design. Based on what I’ve experienced, Design is the change that drives things toward valuable improvement. It is impossible to hit a final state of perfection where no more improvements can be made. For that to happen everything that your design interacts with should never change.

If by any chance you have a definition or an example of perfect design please do share in the responses section.

One-shot, one opportunity, and no design delivered

I’ve noticed too many times the mentality of “we’ve got one shot and one opportunity”. That is so rarely the reality. Especially when the consequences of your design choices carry a small risk and can be reversed easily.

When making a mistake can impact people’s lives and the environment, you should aim to invest more effort and time. The air travel and health industry are an example of such fields. The designs there need to be tested until they can withstand all foreseeable use cases without causing negative effects. But even in these cases, you should not postpone implementation until the “perfect” design is ready. It will kill your design.

Striving for perfection will increase costs. After that, the sunk cost effect will cause a loop of chasing the impossible perfection and deliver nothing.

Instead, try to adopt the mentality of “It’s good enough for now”. Frequently it will prove to be the right approach. Taking many shots at your target and adjusting your aim after every shot is a great way to move forward. It allows for speeding up the learning and thus helping the designs to evolve in the right direction.

Perfection is an enemy of…