Mistakes I could’ve avoided when I started out with design:
1/ Not truly understanding the concept of functionality > aesthetics. It took a while for me to accept that people won’t always pick the better looking product. Aesthetic improvements rarely bring significant improvements.
2/ Not taking feedback early on and spending too much time creating the best version of my design. Keep the team or whoever is involved in the decision-making process an active part of your progress- share your work early on, and get feedback on that first draft vs the final one.
3/ Not realising a lot of design is just thinking and not creating. While I’m aware the velocity at which you create is extremely important as well, but give yourself enough time to think through all the potential ideas.
4/ Creating a lot of beautiful prototypes with high quality imagery, attractive people, which made my designs look absolutely stunning only to realise the real content and imagery used on the final platform are far from this.
5/ Not focussing enough on communication- how you pitch what you create is a really important part of the process. You need to be able to pitch the compelling vision behind your design, you need your teammates/ client to understand why you picked x over y.
6/ I was quite scared to put my work out in public as it was never good enough in my eyes. ‘A lot of perfectionistic tendencies are rooted in fear and insecurity’. Stop doubting your work and don’t fear feedback- look at it as an opportunity to improve.
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