"Here's a nutty idea: designing terrible solutions makes you a better designer. I know that sounds backwards. Designer portfolios share only the most pristine of examples. And we're taught about efficiency and time savings. Best practices tell us to move fast, fail fast, and get to good solutions quickly. So why waste your time thinking about the worst possible option?"
"What happened next surprised us all. As we looked at what we thought would be terrible solutions, we discovered they had some redeeming qualities. Elements that seemed obviously bad at first glance turned out to solve problems we hadn't even identified yet. Our "bad" solutions were teaching us about the problem space in ways our "good" thinking never could. Plus, as we intentionally worked towards a "bad" option we better understood what did and didn't work for the user."
"That terrible solution acted as a powerful filter for what it means to be "good". The critical point was that we knew we were creating terrible options. The Single Option Trap Most of the time we think we're exploring when we're really just optimizing minor variations of one "good" solution. We brainstorm solutions that are all reasonably acceptable (and eerily similar), tweak them until they're slightly better, then pick the least problematic (cheapest) option."
Designing deliberately terrible solutions can improve design by exposing hidden trade-offs and clarifying what 'good' actually means. Creating bad versions reveals unexpected redeeming qualities and surfaces problems that more conventional thinking misses. Intentionally bad options act as powerful filters that illuminate which elements truly serve users and which introduce friction. Relying only on acceptable variations of a single solution leads to optimization within a narrow space and obscures real value judgments. Exploring bad alternatives expands the problem space, helps teams understand user needs, and strengthens decision-making about trade-offs and priorities.
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