Falling in Love with the Details
Have you ever designed something only to sit back and stare at what you just created?
It happened frequently during my studios in college-I would glue a piece on a building, sit back, and leer at my beautiful craftsmanship. Or when I design a website, I'll recline and look at my completed work, admiring work I'd done.
As I was working on some Helpdesk software at the church, I realized that I had fallen into this trap once again. You see, there were a couple details that I had fallen in love with. A few buttons. A few navigation elements. A few icons. Each piece was nice, but I was forgetting that they were only pieces.
As I was discussing the project with my boss, he made some suggestions regarding one of my favorite elements. In an instant, my attitude shifted from one of discussion to one defense. I became completely defensive and unresponsive to suggestions. Why did this happen? This happened because I was enamored with a piece of the puzzle.
I think this happens all to frequently with designers. You work with a project so long and hard, that you see certain elements as the best. Those elements somehow "make" the project in your mind, and when someone questions these pieces, you no longer respond reasonably.
You may fall in love with an icon, a link, a corner, a font, a color, a logo, or an image-a piece of the puzzle of your design. The key is to be able to step back from the design and take the critiques and suggestions, even when the suggestion is about the detail you fell in love with.