You can make a beautiful design and still get the problem wrong.

One thing I've learned from product design is that making something look good and making it work well are two different things.

I love good visuals. Give me a clean layout, good typography, thoughtful colours, and proper spacing, and I'm happy.

But imagine spending hours designing an interface, making every screen look polished, only to discover that the person using it doesn't understand what to do next.

The colours are fine. The buttons are there. The layout looks good.

But the experience is still confusing.

That's the part that reminds me that design is more than decoration.

Before settling on a solution, YOU need to understand what you're trying to achieve, who we're designing for, what the requirements say, and what limitations you have to work with.

Even after designing something, feedback might reveal that you've misunderstood part of the problem. You may need to change the layout, rethink the flow, or return to questions you thought you already answered.

You have to appreciate that iteration is part of the work. It doesn't automatically mean the first attempt was a failure.

Working on product experiences has given me opportunities to reflect on how important feedback and the actual purpose of a solution are.

The goal isn't to defend every decision simply because you've spent time making it. The goal is to arrive at something that serves its purpose better.

Sometimes that means removing a feature. Sometimes it means starting a screen again. And sometimes it means letting go of a design you are genuinely proud of.

I'm learning that the best design isn't necessarily the one I'm most attached to. It's the one that best solves the problem.

Designers, have you ever had to let go of a design you really liked because it wasn't the right solution?