Perfection is limiting. It allows you to look down on other people, but it can stop you from shipping things that are very good. I don’t want to push publish on this project, because it doesn’t look like it’s my full-time job. But all of that work goes to waste, or you do alot less stuff. One of the great parts about being a creative person is putting things out there in the world, get feedback, adjust and get better.
How to accept less than perfection when appropriate
Accepting less than perfection is very appropriate, particularly when pushing into new territory or working on personal projects. To the degree that the flaws don’t change the overall effectiveness of the work. Some attention to detail is appropriate, but it really depends on the genre and how much the details are going to effect how people interact with it.
In art – perfection is a genre, for instance if you are creating something very life-like. But for other types of art it would actually detract from the work. That’s called a photograph, and messiness when done with a certain amount of flair it adds to the overall tone and direction of the work.
In web design – perfection can be a curse, when the details you’re paying attention to are actually not going to make the site more effective. Because perfecting the tiny details on a website rather than focusing on functionality, or testing that will actually bring in more customers or sell more items it can be a waste.
When perfection is important, and how to persue that perfection relentlessly
Perfection in web design is important to persue when the details your spending time on are not subjective, apply to functionality, and will change the real ROI of the site. If it’s a subjective or taste -related thing, it’s best not to spend giant amounts of time on it. But details related to that ROI are important to get right, and prepared to test any hypothesese ideally.
A website that is created very intentionally and tested regularly and changed can have a very legitimate shelf-life of 5 years or more (pending giant developments in web design like responsive design was,) where-as an untended to and unchanged website might be out of date in a couple years. At that point you don’t even know if the design changes you’re making are going to really be in the right direction
