15 June, 2021
Beyond “Good Enough”: the Art of Iterations in Design
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Let’s talk about the status-quo and how it influences professional growth of a designer or any other creative specialist. The article is useful mostly for beginners, but I hope, if you’re an experienced designer, you’ll find it interesting as well.
In biology, status-quo is a neutral balanced state of a system, like homeostasis in the human body where all life-support systems strive. The same principle is fair for career and professional development. Any action requires energy, so countering this, a human strives to remain in a neutral (balanced) zone. Leaving this zone, we urgently want to get back into it. While in nature — it’s the key to survival, in work — it becomes a trap, which interferes with developing.
In a professional environment the status-quo coin has two sides: “it’s fine as it is” and “necessary and sufficient”. We all strive for results. If a task is done, it seems we can stop at this point — this is the “necessary and sufficient” side of the coin. The challenge arises when you’re trying to apply this approach to professional growth. At this point the useful approach can transform into a self-limiting trap, allowing one to fall under the fallacy that every task they’re working on should be done under the “necessary and sufficient” approach. Here it becomes an obstacle, because you’re satisfied with mediocrity — and this is the “it’s fine as it is” side of the coin.
The Approach Becomes an Obstacle
Two sides of the coin I mentioned above are the same at their core, but the way they’re perceived depends on the challenge you’re trying to solve. Both are useful and useless simultaneously, so neither can be defined as purely positive or negative. Now let’s take a look at the approaches and how they can either become an obstacle or an aid depending on perspective.
The first time I had felt the influence of the “necessary and sufficient” principle was when I was a designer and worked with an art director. We were finishing a project and I wanted to correct minute inaccuracies, move our work a few more pixels closer to perfection. Deadlines were burning, but my perfectionism refused to leave a room.
“Enough”, my art director said. I submissively agreed, saved the project and moved onto the next task, but the inner feeling of burning imperfection didn’t allow me to feel peace. Was it the right decision? Well, yes, because of business constraints – the necessity to get it done on time. We had no choice at all. It was at that moment I realized there was a side to the status-quo coin, the «necessary and sufficient».
The more projects we completed, the more I learned the “necessary and sufficient” principle works well when producing tactical business results and achieving goals such as hitting deadlines, but negatively when we’re trying to apply it to personal skill development. I realized if I get every task done by following this approach, it would limit my professional growth. It’s less likely one will become a top-tier professional quickly following this way.
In reality, it’s not that easy to see when one moves from one side of the coin to another. One useful approach that helped you to get things done can easily transform into a “it’s fine as it is” trap, which in 99% cases can be justified by business constraints, but it isn’t negative itself because there are many things in life where one should leave them in the “it’s fine as it is” state, and stop wasting energy and time especially when it doesn’t bring ample benefits.
Instead of following these approaches, I decided to take a different route and focused on the process which means consciously leaving the status-quo state.
The Process
There is another thing which can distract from focusing on the process — the amount of projects. Basically, a designer has two choices: take on more projects (earn more money) or put more energy into projects that are already on their plate. In the short-term, the first case seems more profitable, but in the long run it starts to work against you. Quantity will ultimately dominate over quality and you won’t be able to fully focus on the process. This reinforces the old parable about the value of qualitative work.
Focusing on the process can bring you a few things:
- Increases the collection of potential solutions available to you
- Develops the ability to argue your design decisions
- Leads to better results and increases the quality-bar
- Take you further professionally
The process means iterations. There is no shortcut.
Years ago, when I had just started to work as a designer, I just had a few books and had taken a couple of basic design courses. I knew nothing about rules, principles, techniques and tools. My decisions at work were mostly based on intuition and I didn’t understand the difference between “good” and “bad” design. I wasn’t able to explain the logic behind my design decisions and presented my work defensively.
Looking back, I’m afraid of even opening my work files — the number of iterations of a single layout must’ve been in the hundreds. Changed layout. Changed margin ratio. Changed color, size or font style. After every iteration I compared the current one with the previous one. I often didn’t have enough space in a file, so I had to create a new one and name it “Final.ai”, “Final_01.ai”. Designers normally create 100 iterations, and then realize maybe two out 100 have potential. Here is exactly where the art of iterations reveals itself.
Identifying strong iterations is a separate skill and one of the defining distinctions between designer and art director. An art director can notice potential in even the most underdeveloped ideas. Often the choice of certain iteration is justified by business constraints, so design evaluation criteria can be deeply subjective and related to a certain challenge. Everyone has their own take, but it’s crucial to curate one for yourself. Evaluation criteria can be general and universal (composition, layout, etc), as well as more task-specific (clarity, readability, visibility, etc). Deep understanding of your personal criteria requires practice. Practice is the only way to gain expertise when it comes to design principles.
The distinction between a professional and a beginner is in the number of potential solutions they’re able to procure for any given task. Beginners can come up with infinite ideas, but most of them will be out of context. On the other hand, professionals know what works and what doesn’t, while still being able to generate lots of ideas. The core distinction here is the ability to produce ideas within the context of a certain task.
Garnering options requires you to concentrate on the process, rather than the result. If we follow the «necessary and sufficient» approach, our results will be satisfactory in most cases. Is that enough to get things done? Yes. Enough to professionally grow? Not, really. You should strive to overcome mediocre results every time. Even if a task is already completed. Even if you like the result. Even if your work got enthusiastic reviews. When you’re concentrated on the process, and you have multiple options to choose from, it leads to better results.
Here is the recipe to a successful and meaningful iteration: identify the best design (having references), analyze, copy and iterate. It’s not rocket science.
In Conclusion
Focusing on the details of the process and having a desire to set the bar a bit higher every time are some of the most crucial drivers of positive change and professional growth. Constant pursuit of improvement results in professional accuracy — intentional work and attention to the detail. Even if your design consists of only one word on a monochrome background, the feeling that it can be improved should be present. That’s why the process is crucial. The details define the result.
Designers can feel influenced by the status-quo when they start to become indifferent about the details. The bigger the influence the “it’s fine as it is” trap has, the slower the professional growth and less real-world impact. The world is mostly changed by ambitious and dissatisfied people. Of course, they have their own problems, but their intolerance to mediocre results has moved the planet toward positive change in big ways. If the pursuit to improve the outer world can move the whole planet forward, is that enough to get you moving?
Let’s talk about the status-quo and how it influences professional growth of a designer or any other creative specialist. The article is useful mostly for beginners, but I hope, if you’re an experienced designer, you’ll find it interesting as well.
In biology, status-quo is a neutral balanced state of a system, like homeostasis in the human body where all life-support systems strive. The same principle is fair for career and professional development. Any action requires energy, so countering this, a human strives to remain in a neutral (balanced) zone. Leaving this zone, we urgently want to get back into it. While in nature — it’s the key to survival, in work — it becomes a trap, which interferes with developing.
In a professional environment the status-quo coin has two sides: “it’s fine as it is” and “necessary and sufficient”. We all strive for results. If a task is done, it seems we can stop at this point — this is the “necessary and sufficient” side of the coin. The challenge arises when you’re trying to apply this approach to professional growth. At this point the useful approach can transform into a self-limiting trap, allowing one to fall under the fallacy that every task they’re working on should be done under the “necessary and sufficient” approach. Here it becomes an obstacle, because you’re satisfied with mediocrity — and this is the “it’s fine as it is” side of the coin.
The Approach Becomes an Obstacle
Two sides of the coin I mentioned above are the same at their core, but the way they’re perceived depends on the challenge you’re trying to solve. Both are useful and useless simultaneously, so neither can be defined as purely positive or negative. Now let’s take a look at the approaches and how they can either become an obstacle or an aid depending on perspective.
The first time I had felt the influence of the “necessary and sufficient” principle was when I was a designer and worked with an art director. We were finishing a project and I wanted to correct minute inaccuracies, move our work a few more pixels closer to perfection. Deadlines were burning, but my perfectionism refused to leave a room.
“Enough”, my art director said. I submissively agreed, saved the project and moved onto the next task, but the inner feeling of burning imperfection didn’t allow me to feel peace. Was it the right decision? Well, yes, because of business constraints – the necessity to get it done on time. We had no choice at all. It was at that moment I realized there was a side to the status-quo coin, the «necessary and sufficient».
The more projects we completed, the more I learned the “necessary and sufficient” principle works well when producing tactical business results and achieving goals such as hitting deadlines, but negatively when we’re trying to apply it to personal skill development. I realized if I get every task done by following this approach, it would limit my professional growth. It’s less likely one will become a top-tier professional quickly following this way.
In reality, it’s not that easy to see when one moves from one side of the coin to another. One useful approach that helped you to get things done can easily transform into a “it’s fine as it is” trap, which in 99% cases can be justified by business constraints, but it isn’t negative itself because there are many things in life where one should leave them in the “it’s fine as it is” state, and stop wasting energy and time especially when it doesn’t bring ample benefits.
Instead of following these approaches, I decided to take a different route and focused on the process which means consciously leaving the status-quo state.
The Process
There is another thing which can distract from focusing on the process — the amount of projects. Basically, a designer has two choices: take on more projects (earn more money) or put more energy into projects that are already on their plate. In the short-term, the first case seems more profitable, but in the long run it starts to work against you. Quantity will ultimately dominate over quality and you won’t be able to fully focus on the process. This reinforces the old parable about the value of qualitative work.
Focusing on the process can bring you a few things:
- Increases the collection of potential solutions available to you
- Develops the ability to argue your design decisions
- Leads to better results and increases the quality-bar
- Take you further professionally
The process means iterations. There is no shortcut.
Years ago, when I had just started to work as a designer, I just had a few books and had taken a couple of basic design courses. I knew nothing about rules, principles, techniques and tools. My decisions at work were mostly based on intuition and I didn’t understand the difference between “good” and “bad” design. I wasn’t able to explain the logic behind my design decisions and presented my work defensively.
Looking back, I’m afraid of even opening my work files — the number of iterations of a single layout must’ve been in the hundreds. Changed layout. Changed margin ratio. Changed color, size or font style. After every iteration I compared the current one with the previous one. I often didn’t have enough space in a file, so I had to create a new one and name it “Final.ai”, “Final_01.ai”. Designers normally create 100 iterations, and then realize maybe two out 100 have potential. Here is exactly where the art of iterations reveals itself.
Identifying strong iterations is a separate skill and one of the defining distinctions between designer and art director. An art director can notice potential in even the most underdeveloped ideas. Often the choice of certain iteration is justified by business constraints, so design evaluation criteria can be deeply subjective and related to a certain challenge. Everyone has their own take, but it’s crucial to curate one for yourself. Evaluation criteria can be general and universal (composition, layout, etc), as well as more task-specific (clarity, readability, visibility, etc). Deep understanding of your personal criteria requires practice. Practice is the only way to gain expertise when it comes to design principles.
The distinction between a professional and a beginner is in the number of potential solutions they’re able to procure for any given task. Beginners can come up with infinite ideas, but most of them will be out of context. On the other hand, professionals know what works and what doesn’t, while still being able to generate lots of ideas. The core distinction here is the ability to produce ideas within the context of a certain task.
Garnering options requires you to concentrate on the process, rather than the result. If we follow the «necessary and sufficient» approach, our results will be satisfactory in most cases. Is that enough to get things done? Yes. Enough to professionally grow? Not, really. You should strive to overcome mediocre results every time. Even if a task is already completed. Even if you like the result. Even if your work got enthusiastic reviews. When you’re concentrated on the process, and you have multiple options to choose from, it leads to better results.
Here is the recipe to a successful and meaningful iteration: identify the best design (having references), analyze, copy and iterate. It’s not rocket science.
In Conclusion
Focusing on the details of the process and having a desire to set the bar a bit higher every time are some of the most crucial drivers of positive change and professional growth. Constant pursuit of improvement results in professional accuracy — intentional work and attention to the detail. Even if your design consists of only one word on a monochrome background, the feeling that it can be improved should be present. That’s why the process is crucial. The details define the result.
Designers can feel influenced by the status-quo when they start to become indifferent about the details. The bigger the influence the “it’s fine as it is” trap has, the slower the professional growth and less real-world impact. The world is mostly changed by ambitious and dissatisfied people. Of course, they have their own problems, but their intolerance to mediocre results has moved the planet toward positive change in big ways. If the pursuit to improve the outer world can move the whole planet forward, is that enough to get you moving?
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