Seven Deadly Sins of Product Design
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We all are sinners.
It’s common for every human to repeat mistakes without admitting it.
We keep sinning because it’s easy.
We keep making mistakes because sometimes we don’t know how to act right.
We live in sin because of our arrogance.
And we don’t like to hear we sin.
“Few love to hear the sins they love to act.”
William Shakespeare
Christianity distinct seven deadly sins, also known as cardinal sins. The standard list consists of Pride, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth.
Taking inspiration from the Catholic religion, I created a list of product designers’ seven deadly sins. These are certain mistakes, or sins if you will, that product designers love to repeat in their work. The reasons for such behavior may vary between individuals, but the most common ones are a lack of knowledge, laziness, and arrogance.
I’m more than sure that you could confess at least one of them.
“The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.”
John 8:1-12 MSG
1. I’ll play with fonts and colors for a week instead of trying to understand the problem.
Sounds like fun, right? In the short term, it could be fun indeed.
We all have been there at least once, intentionally or not. Diving deep into and spending an unreasonable amount of time on aspects of the project that are not the number one priority.
If it’s not a pitch deck or a marketing website, visuals are probably not the most important thing you should focus on immediately after being assigned to the project.
Instead, spend a healthy amount of time understanding the problem and the audience. This way, you won’t be throwing spaghetti at the wall and looking at what sticks.
2. How about I lock myself in a basement for a month and then come back with polished designs?
When you don’t update your teammates and don’t include them in the frequent feedback loop, three things happen.
First, your team is likely to be under the impression that you have disappeared. “Does this guy still work here? I wonder what he’s been up to lately?” That’s rude, and your colleagues could be offended by such behavior.
Secondly, your project will hurt. Exposing ideas to feedback frequently increases the chances of success. Every time you get constructive feedback about your work, you start to see a clearer direction of where the project is going and where it should go. There’s a reason why iterative software development works better than waterfall.
The last and worst thing is that there is a relatively high chance that a massive portion of your work might go straight to the trash. That would mean that you wasted a month of your work. If you don’t do enough research, don’t dig enough, and don’t ask the right questions before and during the ideation phase, the outcome of your work might totally miss its target.
3. Wow, this new design trend is awesome! We should have this on our website, too!
Would that be the reason why most of the Internet look alike? I can’t tell.
But what I know for sure is that every time something new and fresh pops up in the design bubble, copycats wake up and emerge from their delves.
Do you want to be one of them?
I bet not.
Do you know if what they did would also work for your audience?
I don’t think so.
Why not be original? Or at least stick to what is already working.
4. How dare they tell me that they know better!
Exposing your work to feedback while being emotionally attached to it might end up in refusing a bit of good advice, hurting the project, and leaving wounded and offended.
How to fight it off?
Detaching your personal feelings from the work you produce as a designer, especially in your early career, might not come easy. However, it’s a crucial step if you want to move forward and grow.
From now on, this should be your mantra:
I’m not my work.
Your teammates and stakeholders work with you as one team, and they are here to help you. They want to help you and elevate the product by giving you feedback and advice. Don’t turn it down.
5. I’ll just make this little change and hope nothing else breaks!
The most unintentional mistake you can make from this list.
Is it really?
Or is it simply laziness?
How often are you asked to work on a new feature or to change one step in the user journey, and you act like you forgot there’s this huge and complex platform behind that users work with every day?
A tiny change that was supposed to improve user experience eventually makes it worse.
Make sure that this assumably small change won’t harm other parts, features, and user journeys of the platform. Always take a holistic approach, whether it’s a single screen, a whole feature, or an entire application.
6. Accessibility? My vision is top-tier, and I don’t need glasses!
As the seven deadly sins believed by Catholics have evolved over the years, I’m pretty sure that my list will evolve, too.
This particular sin is the first one to be deleted.
Accessibility awareness has risen tremendously over the past few years. We now have more tools enabling better and more accessible design. Courses and schools include accessibility in their agenda.
Front-end developers are well-prepared and equipped, too. We work in one team, making our products more accessible and usable to everyone.
Plus, we are not that far from the European accessibility act going live. The EU directive will regulate accessibility starting in June 2025.
7. Let’s redesign the whole thing!
Almost every time you join a new organization and start working on an existing application, you’re tempted to redesign everything.
No, please don’t do that.
Overcome this temptation.
What would be the reason to redesign the whole thing? Why would you put everything that already existed into virtual trash, spend months on design and development, and eventually surprise your users, not particularly in a good way?
Would this bring them any value or just make you feel better?
People don’t like change.
Little modifications will have a better impact on user experience than a giant redesign, which is risky, costly, and hard to justify.
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That’s well written and super helpful- thanks a lot for your work 😊