Pixelvetica

First off, sorry about the title of this post. It’s provocative, is it not? But in all sincerity, here’s what I mean:

We all have them, those designs or applications we just want to get done and release so people will see it. “Meh, I can just add a drop shadow if anyone notices, but they won’t. Meh, I’ll release it on Twitter now. Meh.” Or we post our design “looking for feedback,” when in reality it’s supposed to be a release. Everyone has done it.

But it’s time we start really thinking before release; we need to preempt the criticisms and provide our best work right off the tee. Don’t wait for someone on Forrst or Dribbble or M* to say that you need to round the corners— step back and take an objective look at what you’ve made. Ask yourself, “Would someone think I should change that?”

Inevitably, there will always be things you won’t catch, some gradient you screwed up or a bug in your code. But the fewer revisions, the higher quality your work will be regarded as. This isn’t to say that revising is bad (never add “_FINAL” to the end of a file name because it just isn’t true), but it is to say that there’s a lot of bad design and development out there right now, and we need to resolve that issue, and I’ve presented a way of doing that. It’s all about final objectivity.

And if you’re like my friend Louie Mantia and haven’t released a single imperfect thing since your birth, I guess you’re just better than the rest of us.  

EDIT: Yes, that’s meant as a compliment.
EDIT 2: I don’t have a live feedback system set up right now. Email your comments to carson@carsonkahn.com or tweet me.