Why your third design iteration is the first one that actually matters
Guest Contribution
In a startup you need to move fast. You are often trying to beat the competition to market, and your audience will be small enough to allow you experimenting with features and design before the userbase grows too big and too whiny about small changes being made.
That’s why my first design iteration is often:
- Crappy
- “Heavily influenced by other people’s work” (stolen)
- Hastily put together
- Not future-proof
I just want to get something launched. We can change the design later. Right now we just want to get people using the platform. And until we know if people even want to use the platform; why spend time on UI when you can spend time making sure the site is stable and that the product makes sense? Obviously you shouldn’t design something that looks like an atrocity from the 90s, but no reason to put too much time into your first design?—?it will be scrapped very soon.
If we do notice traction, now comes the second design iteration. We have learned more about what direction we are taking, and we have probably added a dozen more features that have been poorly crammed into the first iteration. The second iteration can now cater to the changes we have made, and it can start giving the product an identity.
The second design iteration is often:
- Full of (a little too much) personality to stand out and differentiate from competition
- More flexible in terms of feature-adding
- Meant to stick around for some time
Now you ride that second iteration for at least 6–12 months, making tweaks and improving as you go. But like the first iteration, don’t get too attached?—?this design will also be scrapped soon.
When it’s time for the third iteration, your platform should be stable enough for you to know to a high level exactly what components are core, and where you will be in a few year’s time in terms of future features. This is now the first time in the design pipeline you should put a real effort into UI and UX.
The third design iteration should be:
- The first “real” attempt at a properly designed product
- Fully future-proof
- Tailor-made specifically for your product
- Considered the base design for years to come
- Data-driven and UX-focused because you should now have enough user interaction and platform data to make informed decisions
Which is why the third iteration is really the first design you should actually care about. You will live with it for at least a couple of years, and all future designs need to echo what you did in that third attempt to avoid users going crazy when you change things.
If you are an inexperienced designer you may think you have to nail the first attempt. You don’t, and you won’t. Look at the most famous platforms on the planet: do you think their current design was their first attempt? It probably wasn’t even their fifth go.
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