Since I have been on a kick about options, simplicity and the “underdo” concept in general I thought I would talk about Maximizers…

Schwartz relates the ideas of psychologist Herbert Simon from the 1950s to the psychological stress which faces most consumers today. He notes some important distinctions between, what Simon termed,maximizers and satisficers. A maximizer is like a perfectionist, someone who needs to be assured that their every purchase or decision was the best that could be made. The way a maximizer knows for certain is to consider all the alternatives they can imagine. This creates a psychologically daunting task, which can become even more daunting as the number of options increases. The alternative to maximizing is to be a satisficer. A satisficer has criteria and standards, but a satisficer is not worried about the possibility that there might be something better. Ultimately, Schwartz agrees with Simon’s conclusion, thatsatisficing is, in fact, the maximizing strategy.

Many clients ask for 3, 4, 10 concepts to review for the final products in hopes that they will be able to eliminate obvious bad choices and make better decisions. In theory this makes sense but often it burns out designers who have to push through mediocre work instead of focusing on 1 or 2 excellent concepts and dialing in on great ideas. Not to mention most clients will them mix together 2 or 3 of the designs they like in hopes to get the best of everything. 

Balancing creativity and productivity is always a struggle for me. Knowing when to take some time and wait for an idea or push forward a good idea with excellent execution is always hard. Design is not a 3-step problem/solution process. Give 10 designers the same project and you are garunteed to get completely different solutions.

Don’t let perfect get in the way of unique ideas.