Am I just pretending to be a designer? The happy accidents become just accidents. Key research is missing. Ideas of perfection lead to paralysis.

Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

I’m starting off the year with Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. This short 100 page read addresses the fears and battles that every artist faces head-on, but I’d found these fears and reminders alleviating them apply to every creative discipline—even UI/UX.

These are three key points that have gotten me out of critiquing my work before the pen hits paper, setting unrealistic expectations, and the inevitable moments of doubt that surface when designing within uncertainty.

Accept that uncertainty never disappears. Develop a tolerance for it.

As designers, all that we do will inevitably be flavored with uncertainty. Accept that the design brief will be challenged, stakeholder needs change, and problem statements will be reframed continuously throughout the design process as new insights are found.

Accepting this and building a tolerance for uncertainty is the only path forward. You’ve probably discovered early on that making detailed user flow diagrams, skipping the sketchbook to go hi-fi, and all other preliminary “perfect” plans for the steps of your design process is an exercise in futility. All you need is the big picture, and the very next step:

“What’s really needed is nothing more than a broad sense of what you are looking for, some strategy for how to find it, and an overriding willingness to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way.” … ”Lawrence Durrell likened the process to driving construction stakes in the ground: you plant a stake, run fifty yards ahead and plant another, and pretty soon you know which way the road will run.”

— Ted Orland, Art and Fear, p. 21.

“After all, someone has to do your work, and you’re the closest one around.” Fail fast.

The hard truth is that the first draft will be trashed. So sit down and knock the first draft out. It is the seed, the guiding vector, to that next ‘stake in the ground’ as Durrell puts it.

You make good work by making lots of bad work, and iteration upon iteration, weeding out the bad bits. Those mistakes you, your peers, or your users catch are your most valuable, reliable feedback to what needs further development and what is to be dropped.

“It is only after a preliminary solution is found that a deeper understanding of the problem can emerge. Therefore, a significant challenge for the designer is to proceed with a non-perfect understanding of the problem, and to be willing to share half-formed solutions.”