It's Okay to Get Design Wrong

in , by Bryan 1 comment

It's dreadful to think about, but most of your work as a designer is about getting it wrong. Think about the last design project you worked on. How many iterations did you have to go through before you got it right? Probably quite a few.

Although few other professions spend so much time getting it wrong, it's important to realize that it's perfectly okay when designers do. Does the rest of your team understand this, or do they continually focus on wrong answers? If so, there may be a disconnect in your process, or maybe they don't understand your process at all. Be sure to let your team know that it's okay to fail as long as the end result is a win. In fact, it's more than okay— failure is the only way you'll get to a win.

1 comment

Terry says

You are so right with this. I once headed up a marketing department and I reported to the head of operations. We were almost paralyzed because he insisted nothing come out that was not perfect. We would spend days getting it "perfect" and then have people outside of marketing say "this is really not what I wanted."

For me put it on paper and let's talk will bring more great ideas to the surface. I see no shame in "getting it wrong" as it helps the creative flow.

Terry