If you are a designer or a developer, you’d probably know that trying to make your project perfect can extend the time needed to complete the project-even several times. There’s always that one last element you want to improve quickly before sending it. But in my opinion Perfection is equal to fascism. Nothing that surrounds us is perfect. There’s always at least one thing that can be improved. If everyone leads their product to perfection before launching it to the public, then today we would have nothing! Not even electricity or wheel.
Since everything surrounding you is not perfect, would you rather not own them? Would you rather wait until someone leads them to perfection before they let you have them? Probably not. Therefore while working on your projects, always takes other’s failures as a reference – be creative, but don’t try to be perfect.
Unfortunately, all this extra time you’ve spent pursuing perfection can remain unnoticed and unappreciated. There’s a reason why the recipient of your project might not even notice your extra effort.
And that is simply because they didn’t see the previous version of the project, so they don’t have anything to refer to and compare to. The only thing they’ll notice and criticize will be basic functions and elements. Working on details (tiny fragments of your graphic design) robs most of your time. That one little thing that keeps agitating you or some additional function you think would be cool and handy. So, before you realize it, the total project completion time has extended several times. Do you want to spend 60% of your work time perfecting the details and only 40% on achieving the goals?
It’s simple (and true). If you did not try to make every detail perfect and focus on the most important key elements instead, these key elements will not only be clearly visible in the final solution, but you will also finish the work earlier. So by hiding perfection in the pocket, you’ll be much more productive and deliver much better results.
Here are the benefits that can be brought by forgetting about perfection and creating a simple version of the website instead:
- The website can be launched earlier.
- The website can make money / get exposure earlier.
- The feedback from visitors will arrive earlier.
- Because of the early feedback, you will improve the website by focusing on the things the visitors pointed out (not only the things you thought would be cool).