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Design is compromise — Steph Ango

stephango.com · 240 words · saved by 1 readers

Compromise is neither good nor bad, it’s something we do every day. It’s decision making. Prioritizing. Deciding that one thing is more important than another. It’s finding the right balance between two competing desires. Which compromises you make — that’s what matters. Choosing the right compromises is what defines good design. Companies like to tout products as “uncompromising” or having “no compromises”. That’s impossible. Once you decide on an approach, you inherently decide against other options. Another word for compromise is “tradeoff”. The word “tradeoff” conveys the relationship between strengths and weaknesses. You are trading a weakness for a strength. Having an opinionated set of tradeoffs exposes your approach to a set of weaknesses. The more you tip the scale on one side, the weaker something else will be. That’s okay! Making those difficult choices is what people pay you for. You should be proud of your compromises. My favorite products are opinionated. They make a cl

When did the word “compromise” become vilified? Compromise is neither good nor bad, it’s something we do every day. It’s decision making. Prioritizing. Deciding that one thing is more important than another. It’s finding the right balance between two competing desires. Which compromises you make — that’s what matters. Choosing the right compromises is what defines good design. Companies like to tout products as “uncompromising” or having “no compromises”. That’s impossible. Once you decide on an approach, you inherently decide against other options. Another word for compromise is “tradeoff”. T

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