06/2025: It is the micro-decisions

Image © Jose 2025

So, here is general purpose view of the world, not that you asked for another one. I firmly believe that there is nothing without design, there is just good and bad design. Though some might think of design in a reductionist viewpoint, as just aesthetics, there is nothing wrong with aesthetics, and beauty, on the contrary. Nevertheless, in this context I mean design as more than just aesthetics. While we might engage in endless discussions about what is good design, I’d like to discuss bad design. I tend to divide bad design into two categories, accidental and intentional, the first resulting in lack of knowledge and awareness about design, the second, much more dangerous and annoying, resulting from bad design decisions many times dressed up as good ones. The saying “the world is full of good intentions” attempts to explain the sometimes indescribable and inexcusable decisions that results in, bad design. My wife just bought a brush for removing snow and ice from her car, and the thing is a perfect example of bad intentional design, it’s full of features that I am sure came from marketing (…) and then resolved poorly by designers and/ or engineers and/or tool makers, it’s full of parts that are supposed to lock in but don’t, and the user gets stuck with something that he needs to be holding with both hands and keeps twisting and turning, hurting the car and the user’s ego.

Odly enough, though I have found many intentional designs that are 100% wrong (many times starting with the wrong premise or brief, followed by wrong technological solution, wrong choice of materials, wrong go-to-market strategy, and on, and on…), the majority of them end up being bad enough not to be good, usually a missed opportunity to do something better, because of micro-decisions. I found out that, it is not a core and central decision that created the monstrosities we are surrounded with, it started with a small, insignificant micro-decision, that at the time made perfect sense (it’s easier, it’s faster, it’s cheaper, it’s what our competitors do, it’s invisible, it’s…), but then creates a roller-coaster of other micro-decisions that make up the end-result. It can be something as simple as the placing a core function or component, deciding where to join and split, choosing a place to set the opening, and a million other small, insignificant micro-decisions.

Those that work with me know I keep repeating, watch out with the micro-decisions, and by that I mean that you need to explore implications before some of these micro-decisions are made, and that means that you might have to engage in designing alternatives and think through about pros/ cons, understanding implications, interferences, impositions. I’m all for heuristics and doing things the way people are used to them, but sometimes that comes at a cost, the cost of doing something better. While true that any solution that breaks with heuristics carries an education tax, and the budget so many times is not there for it, some of the most important habits we have as human beings required someone to break with heuristics at some point, and then evolved with a number of micro-decisions that ended up changing the landscape of that product segment (scrolling up/ down on a touch screen is a good example). I know by now some folks are rolling their eyes, and might be thinking that this is fine, but creates more costs and extends the timeline. But what is the cost implicit in 70-90% failure in new product launches, stuff that never meet their initial or long-term sales targets? Yes, Design can help with that.

When you are renovating a house after you made the grand decisions (level the house down or not, add a floor or not, break walls and join areas, etc.), it’s all about micro-decisions. And while you as the house owner, architect, designer might want to oversee those micro-decisions, reality is you never are. And this is because you are working with other people, and they make these micro-decisions every day, in large numbers. And while you might have someone managing the work that is wise, has a good sense of the implications, has a good aesthetic eye, the chance is that these decisions will create a result that might be ok, or good, but never the best possible, never something memorable, exquisite, remarkable, rewarding. And while you might be the only one that knows how better this small detail could be, you will live with it until one day you decide to start over again. And it’s all about design, small things like leaving a large wall untouched by switches, alignment and misalignment by design, matching color and finish, cutting and joining surfaces, parting lines in the ceiling, placement, hiding and showing, so many small details, so many micro-decisions that make the difference. Majority of these are supposedly “invisible” to most people, but even for those who aren’t trained to identify and name these micro-decisions, most people know when something feels exceptional, or not. And it’s all about the micro-decisions, and we must own it.