I’m a UI/UX designer who’s tired of "Beautiful Junk."
Hi PH! I’ve spent the last decade obsessing over bento grids and micro-interactions. But recently, I had a bit of an identity crisis. I realized I was spending 4 hours color-grading a button for a product that might not even have a single user.
As a designer-founder, the hardest part isn't the code or the pixels it's the silence after you launch something nobody asked for. I’m now on a mission to stop being a "Visionary" and start being a "Data Detective." I'm forcing myself to look at cold, hard spreadsheets before I even open Figma. It’s painful, it’s not "pretty," but it’s the only way I’ve found to keep my sanity in this AI-saturated market.
I’m here to connect with other "recovering perfectionists" who are trying to build things that actually matter.
One quick question for the fellow makers: Do you still feel that "guilt" when you ship something with a basic UI, or have you fully embraced the "Ugly but Useful" philosophy?
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re: Do you still feel that "guilt" when you ship something with a basic UI, or have you fully embraced the "Ugly but Useful" philosophy?
Guilt! Oh, absolutely! And that will (thankfully) never stop. I think "perfectionism" got a bad reputation for being a disabling force. The source of procrastination. The evil lord Nevership. But I think it's a superpower. It produces a better product. Because you care.
When you're a builder, it's easy to get stuck in the craft. You feel it a) defines who you are, and b) directly communicates your value to others. Even when you know it's really about your taste.
When you learn about entrepreneurship and when you try to understand what the "jobs to be done" are for your customers, the users of your product, a shift can occur. And if you can move fast... move fast. The longer you spend on something, the more you own it, and the more resistant to change you will be. Sometimes that is good. Sometimes that's the worst because you get blinded by your own craft and skills.
If you reframe things ever so slightly, you don't ever have to lower your standards. Build something useful. Then do take the time to obsess over details because it can be 200 "quiet little things" that reduce friction, improve UX, and delight the user... and they won't even necessarily be able to articulate why. And being able to perfect something is what will keep bringing you back to it, to make it better, to make it a source of learning and growth for yourself, making it an effort to bridge that gap that you will forever see.