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Let me reiterate, we need to iterate.

Written on 11 October 2012, published in Design Talk with an astounding 3 comments

Sometimes only rockstar designers get the chance to iterate upon their design concepts. Not all clients are willing to pay for on-going development of a product or service, but sometimes we land a client that reminds us why we love design.

and we get the chance to iterate…

It’s very rare that we get things right first time. I’m not talking about creating 3 different concepts for a client to choose from, that’s rubbish. I’m talking about taking a concept, that solves 93% of the clients’ problems and working on it until it’s a big fat 99%. You’ll never reach 100%, you know why…

Today I presented a concept to a client, I liked where it was heading, but I knew there would be certain concerns. The client will always knows more about their product than you. As I expected there were concerns about certain aspects of the design, usability issues that would need to be addressed in a second iteration. That’s OK, that’s more than OK. That means I get to continue aiming towards the “perfect” product.

If the client had said, “Great, that’ll do”, then I would have failed on many levels, as would their product. If they had said, “That’s crap, adios” then I would also have failed, but for different reasons. By iterating upon the original concept I can create something more than mediocre, more than OK. I can create something that solves my clients problems, creates excitement amongst their users and gives me an enormous sense of pride and satisfaction.

I know that I can head off in the right direction, take constructive feedback, and use that feedback to better my designs, and the clients’ product. This benefits me, my client, and my clients clients.

Win, win. So let me reiterate, we need to iterate.

Good luck

Photo Credit: Mike Rohde