Web design and when to leave well enough alone
I got into my first car accident when I was fifteen. Well, my brother was the one who got us into the accident. It was winter in Michigan and snowing so hard we couldn’t see more than a couple of feet. When he went to turn onto the freeway, the car skidded on some ice into a ditch.
The important part wasn’t the accident. It’s what happened just before impact. In that calm, clear, slow-motion moment there was a profound sense of inevitability. We weren’t afraid. We were going so slowly we could’ve opened the doors and stepped out long before the crash. Instead, we just looked at each other, shrugged, and waited. Inevitability. It was coming and there was nothing we could do about it.
I had that same feeling the other day while I was designing a website. I was almost done. The layout looked good. But as I stared at the design, something felt “off”. So I made a minor adjustment. Then another. Then another. Inevitability. Like a slow-motion car crash, I couldn’t stop myself. An hour later I was staring at a new design that wasn’t nearly as good as what I had before that first, fateful change.
Sometimes the key to good web design is knowing when to leave well enough alone.
Even though I was caught off guard that time, I can usually tell when to let go of the mouse and walk away.
- Deadlines and contracts
If there’s a deadline to meet or the client’s on an hourly rate and we’ve capped the total cost, then I have no choice but to wrap up a design at a given time. For me, these are the easiest websites to do because the focus isn’t on the design so much as the completion of a design.
- The right balance and composition
This is when I’m happiest with what I’ve created. All the design elements are in place and the layout is well-balanced. The compositional movement takes the eye through the design and attention only stops where I want it to. There’s a visual feeling of completeness.
- The amorphous “gut feeling”
Every once in awhile I just have a sense that I’m done. It’s not that the design looks or feels done. It’s more that there’s nothing else I can do to it. It’s as good as it’s going to get.
I don’t know what it is on those rare occasions that keeps me from leaving well enough alone. Maybe it’s the fear of not being good enough or the drive to do something a little better. I usually stop when I should. But every once in awhile my inner design junkie pushes me beyond the point of done and, sometimes, I find something amazing on the other side. I guess that makes it worthwhile.
How about you? Can you walk away before a good web design goes bad? Or do you keep going until you find something better? Let us know in the comments.
About Chet Garrison
Chet is a freelance graphic and web designer with a genuine passion for great design. When he’s not glued to his computer, you can find him in a catatonic state watching re-runs of Roseanne and eating Cheez-It’s.
9 Comments
I know just what you mean. I have experienced the same things so many times. Even just today, I realized I need to walk away, and just let it go.
Good post :)
Historically it seems that it takes me 20% of my development time to complete 80% of a web design project and 80% of the time to develop the *last* 20%.
What this really means is that I often continue to make tweak after tweak after tweak when the design is really already finished. Recognizing gut feeling that the job is complete is a skill to be learned through experience.
Could go both ways. You’re right, tweaking too much can undermine the simplicity and cleanliness of a good design.
On the other hand, you should trust your feelings. You said that something felt “off” about the design you’d made. That means something probably *was* off, and you were right to try and resolve that. It may not have gone perfectly in this case, but better to try and address problems with a site that you’re not happy with than pack it up and call it finished.
I thought you might enjoy this:
In response to the question “How do you know when you’re finished?”, Pollock replied “How do you know when you’re finished making love?”
Verbatim from about.com
http://painting.about.com/library/biographies/blartistquotespollock.htm
I loved this article so much. You found just the right words to describe something I have struggled with time and time again. Thanks for that :)
Thanks for the comments everyone! It’s nice to see I’m not the only one who struggles with this.
Kostandinos — That’s hilarious! Thanks for adding to the conversation.
My god, this is exactly what I do! Stare at it until you find something to tweak and it never ends… Sometimes you just gotta walk away! Or at least just stay away from it for a while until the urge to tweak everything subsides… Nice story at the beginning, too. :)
Deadlines are easily the best excuse to walk away. I recently completed a project, looked at a menu bar that I wasn’t in love with, and said, “The site is due. The bar is good enough.”
A lot of designers seem to be horrified by the term “good enough,” but doing a job professionally also means getting it done on time. If the client will not be satisfied, that’s one thing. But if it’s just you and your particular pickiness/perfectionism that’s bringing you back to “the tweak” time and time again, you gotta let it go a little and respect the deadline.
Greg
I think a lot of people struggle with this simply because they don’t have the self-confidence to realise they have already done a good job.
When I am caught in this conundrum these days I just remember the saying “Perfection is the enemy of good” and suddenly it’s a lot easier to walk away.