ARTICLE SUMMARY: It’s the worst, you’re trapped in endless revisions, staring at the same layout for an hour, and then suddenly it hits you, you’re stuck in decision paralysis.
It happens to the best of us. It’s the equivalent of writer’s block, you get stuck in that “is this good enough?” mode and can’t seem to break out of it.
“Stop overthinking every design decision — use these 7 rules instead” by Nurkhon is a good look at this problem, offering insights to help you move through it along with practical steps to avoid it. Some of his suggestions include using:
- First principles — break problems into simple truths
- The clean design rule — simplicity always wins
- The 5×5 UX rule — will this matter in 5 days or 5 years?
While it affects mostly designers in the early part of their careers, 73% of all designers have been hit by decision fatigue. The difference between junior and senior designers isn’t innate talent or years of experience alone, it’s having systematic frameworks for making decisions.
Designers need to train themselves to recognize patterns earlier, building mental models that help them categorize problems and apply proven solutions. Overthinking is kept in check when they develop systematic ways to evaluate their work.
If this is a problem for you, this article has the help you get through it. Let us know what you think in the comments.
