I think, as members of the human race, we all have a natural reaction to the word “Failure”. Failure is a bad thing. It is a negative term at its root and we feel we must do our best to avoid it at any cost. So, we prepare, we study things out, we learn from others mistakes, we are cautious, we avoid risks, we stay with what is proven and safe.

Inevitably, no matter how hard we try, sooner or later we are bound to fail at something. However, when we do fail something amazing happens… we learn something! In a best case scenario not only do we learn what not to do, we also learn how to make better decisions that will link directly to future success! This is the beauty of failure.

When speaking about failure in design, in my opinion, it is essential. Not only is it essential to fail, but we should be doing it often and then iterating on a better solution quickly. This in-turn, results in a better product after each failed discovery is recognized and reconfigured.

My belief is that there really is no such thing as “perfect” design. We can only strive for the best design. So learn to embrace failure in design. Don’t be scared of it, learn from it, and then apply what you learned and I guarantee that success will be right around the corner.

Jeremy Johnson