Design Perfection
I have wrestled with being a perfectionist my whole life. (Is that sentence good enough?) In learning how to design, I’ve had to battle looking at details too soon. I’ve quickly learned that you shouldn’t be married to a design. It’s not “your” design, it’s problem solving for others' needs.
Pixel pushing has its place, but not for a majority of the process. Like playing with finger paints, you’re not having fun unless you’re making a mess. This mentality is often heavily missing from many real world workplace scenarios. Which in turn, adds fuel to a perfectionist mindset. I have anxiety just thinking about it.
How do we break the cycle? The iterative process of UX/UI design forces you to look at the process differently. The goal is to get to the finish line as quickly as possible just to see if it works, not to win a beauty pageant. And if it doesn’t work, instead of looking down on yourself for failing, we learn to ask, “Why doesn’t it work?” The iterative design process is very much in line with detective work. I love a good mystery, and design let’s me explore the human psyche and learn how others interact with the world. This really takes away the burden of having to be perfect every step of the way. Software is always improving, graphics are always improving, it’s never perfect, but it is fun, and it is better than it was yesterday.
I have always been my strongest critic. But today, like every day, is a chance to learn from my mistake of wanting to be perfect. It’s an impossible goal. There’s no use in judging myself, my ability, my work. There’s enough people in the world doing that already. My mother always tells me to enjoy the journey. She’s always been right. Design is a journey into improvement, enrichment, and learning. Perfection is a fear of being judged. Be judged, and grow past perfection.
I’d liked to leave you with a short story about my online username. I often go by Perfecide. This name is the combination of perfect, and the suffix, cide, which means to kill. The perfect killer. When I was younger it was the ideal name for playing video games. Now it’s grown into something much more important to me. I’ve transformed the definition to represent the death of perfection. My battle with a perfectionist mindset. With this new way of thinking, I wanted to position Perfecide as a product that could help others. I combined this with my love of 1950’s hand painted advertising, and came up with this illustration. I hope this idea brings a little relief to anyone who struggles with perfection, anxiety, or self doubt.
