The other day, I watched a debate in my team about… a list.
Yep, a simple list of items. Half the team wanted to run another round of research. The other half said, “It’s a list, can we just ship it already?”
And it hit me: we often turn UX into an all-or-nothing game. Either we over-research the basics, or we skip fundamentals in the name of speed. Both extremes slow us down.
Here’s what’s helped me find middle ground:
ISO’s usability definition is a great compass: effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction in context. If your design nails those three, you probably don’t need weeks of testing before launch.
Nielsen’s heuristics cover 80% of issues upfront. Checking for consistency or error prevention is often faster (and more useful) than another survey.
Iterate quickly, but anchor to principles. That way you avoid “analysis paralysis” and “move fast and break everything” chaos.
AI adds another twist — it can generate wireframes in seconds. But it still can’t tell you whether your design actually works for a technician in the field, or a customer under stress. That’s still on us as designers.
I wrote a longer piece on this (link below), but I’d love to hear from you:
👉 When do you say “this is good enough, let’s ship” vs. “nope, we need more research”?
Full article here: 11 Software Development Principles
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