Good Enough can be Good Enough and Even Great: Design for a Target, not Perfection

You’ll never achieve a perfect design. There’s no such thing. You can, however, get-achieve-reach a design that meets many user needs and supports key business goals. When you get there, move on. Endless hours are wasted in design reviews trying to attain the unattainable “perfect” design solution.

Some additional things to know about Good Enough:

• This doesn’t mean settling for something inferior. That’s different.
• You should decide ahead of time what “good enough” means.  And how, ideally, you’ll measure that.
• In the end, the experience is generally part of some larger system purpose. And that’s your true target. Evaluate your design with that end-to-end perspective in mind.
• If there’s a key decision maker – a CEO for example – who can overturn even a proven design, make sure they are involved early on in the process and part of the conversation on how the design will be evaluated.
• The more design reviews are based on evidence, and less on opinions or even “best practices”, the more efficient you will be at achieving the right balance here.