Why the Best Designs Fail Sometimes

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You may be the most creative person in the world and yet not taste the kind of success that you deserve. You may have all the talent in the world and yet not gain the recognition that you warrant. You may have come up with the best design that money can buy and yet find it rejected for reasons that are incomprehensible to you. If you find it hard to understand why the best designs fail sometimes, it’s because:

  • They’re not user-friendly: Most designers don’t take the trouble to test their creations on people who are actually going to use them regularly. That’s why we have appliances that are inconvenient to use and gadgets that don’t bow to your wishes like they’re supposed to. Every finished product must undergo a testing period where all the possible glitches and errors are ironed out.
  • When there’s not enough detail: Oftentimes, there are details that are obvious to the designer but completely invisible to the user. If the devil is in the detail, you’d better make sure that your design is well documented and that there are no ambiguities involved.
  • When egos take over: When two or more people are involved in a project and there’s a clash of egos, you can bet your last dollar that there’s going to be some sort of confusion in the end result. For designs to live up to their potential, they must come together after leaving their egos at the doorstep.
  • When deadlines take priority over quality: Even the best designers come up with slipshod work when they’re pressurized to complete the project in a ridiculously short amount of time. When deadlines precede quality in the priority list, you know there’s going to be some compromise being made in the way the final product turns out.
  • When expectations run high: There’s no way to satisfy people with the highest expectations – no matter how good your end product is, they always find some fault with it. It’s hard to come up with a successful design when your client is finicky and looking for something negative in your creation rather than seeing the positive aspects of the design.
  • When you try to do too much: There are many times when simplicity scores over sophistication, and a good designer realizes the truth in this. He or she understands that you don’t have to go overboard to come up with a design that meets the cut, that sometimes, it’s better to stay with the bare outlines rather than fill the entire space with clutter and confusion.

In the end, good design is all about understanding the client’s needs, translating it onto the screen, and infusing it with as much usability as possible.

This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject of business schools. She invites your feedback at hollymccarthy12 at gmail dot com