One of the most difficult challenges a User Experience designer faces is deciding when to stop work on a design. One of the cherished attributes of many designers is the eye for detail and a focus on perfection. User Experience designers are taught to seek the right answer, the correct solution, the ideal experience. And there is something to be said for this. But while perfection is great in the abstract, when it comes to working on projects, the quest for perfection can become a designer’s biggest nightmare. There are two reasons for this.
First, value is asymptotic. It approaches perfection, but can never really get there. When we as designers chase perfection, we are chasing an impossible goal. We are striving for some idealistic vision of what we think should be, a la Don Quixote. We can spend more time, getting closer and closer, but it will always stay just out of reach. We end up becoming horses, chasing a carrot on a stick. As much as we move, we never quite get that carrot. And this is what causes product overruns and delays.
First, value is asymptotic. It approaches perfection, but can never really get there. When we as designers chase perfection, we are chasing an impossible goal. We are striving for some idealistic vision of what we think should be, a la Don Quixote. We can spend more time, getting closer and closer, but it will always stay just out of reach. We end up becoming horses, chasing a carrot on a stick. As much as we move, we never quite get that carrot. And this is what causes product overruns and delays.
The other reason is that the meaning of perfection will change. When we introduce a design (system or tool) to users, it immediately changes the way the user interacts with the world. As close to perfect as the design may be, when users get their hands on it, the target will move again. To use yet another metaphor, this is like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill. We can get to the top, but once we are there, we just have to start over again with the changed environment.
There is always more that can be done to make the design better, more usable, and more engaging. But on projects where there is a limited budget (which most every project has), the decision to stop designing at the right time can mean the difference between staying on budget and going over budget. But it can also mean the difference between a successful design and a failed design concept.
What I use as my guide is something pulled from the field of economics, called the Law of Diminishing Returns. Diminishing Returns is the decrease in the marginal (incremental) output of a production process as the amount of a single factor of production is incrementally increased, while the amounts of all other factors of production stay constant.
There is always more that can be done to make the design better, more usable, and more engaging. But on projects where there is a limited budget (which most every project has), the decision to stop designing at the right time can mean the difference between staying on budget and going over budget. But it can also mean the difference between a successful design and a failed design concept.
What I use as my guide is something pulled from the field of economics, called the Law of Diminishing Returns. Diminishing Returns is the decrease in the marginal (incremental) output of a production process as the amount of a single factor of production is incrementally increased, while the amounts of all other factors of production stay constant.
Simply put, a good time to stop designing is when your effort remains the same, but the value of the work you produce decreases (as seen in the image above). There is no hard and fast rule that I have created to determine when this point is, but I have worked long enough to know when I am entering this zone.
The hard problems have been solved, and the key features are available and easy to access. If I find myself looking at my design for a while, making little tweak after tweak, it is clear I am polishing. I am not making large changes, just little things to make the design feel better. Nothing I do will radically alter the user experience, just enhance it by degrees. The longer I look, the more little things I find to test out and see if they will have an impact. At this point, I know it is time to stop. It’s not perfect, but it definitely is good enough.
To be clear, I am not advocating for bad or haphazard design. The goal is not to do the minimum, or just get a passing grade. The goal is still to do great design. But we can’t forget the other goal we have – stay within budget. While these goals often seem to conflict, the budgetary goal (time, money, or both), forces us to get creative and find a solution that works on all levels. By identifying the point of diminishing returns, combined with recognizing when product success is achieved, it becomes easier to justify stopping our work so that we can release it to the world.
The hard problems have been solved, and the key features are available and easy to access. If I find myself looking at my design for a while, making little tweak after tweak, it is clear I am polishing. I am not making large changes, just little things to make the design feel better. Nothing I do will radically alter the user experience, just enhance it by degrees. The longer I look, the more little things I find to test out and see if they will have an impact. At this point, I know it is time to stop. It’s not perfect, but it definitely is good enough.
To be clear, I am not advocating for bad or haphazard design. The goal is not to do the minimum, or just get a passing grade. The goal is still to do great design. But we can’t forget the other goal we have – stay within budget. While these goals often seem to conflict, the budgetary goal (time, money, or both), forces us to get creative and find a solution that works on all levels. By identifying the point of diminishing returns, combined with recognizing when product success is achieved, it becomes easier to justify stopping our work so that we can release it to the world.