Design Failures

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What are Design Failures?

Design failures – as the name implies – are designs that have completely failed. From time to time, designers fall flat on their faces and create solutions that are outlandish and impractical.

Mistakes happen and poor choices are made. The best thing to do is to learn and move on.

Sometimes, a design may fail regardless of the designer’s skill level or execution. For example, even if the user interface is exquisite and the information architecture is logical and intuitive, there is still a chance that the design may fail. Why? The design needs to be adopted and accepted by the target audience.

The spectrum of design failures ranges far and wide. But one thing is for sure, mistakes are a natural part of creativity and the best thing you can do is learn from them.

Literature on Design Failures

Here's the entire UX literature on Design Failures by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:

Learn more about Design Failures

Take a deep dive into Design Failures with our course User Experience: The Beginner's Guide .

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  • Don Norman: Father of User Experience (UX) design, author of the legendary book “The Design of Everyday Things,” and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group.

  • Rikke Friis Dam and Mads Soegaard: Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of IxDF. 

  • Mike Rohde: Experience and Interface Designer, author of the bestselling “The Sketchnote Handbook.”

  • Stephen Gay: User Experience leader with 20+ years of experience in digital innovation and coaching teams across five continents.

  • Alan Dix: Author of the bestselling book “Human-Computer Interaction” and Director of the Computational Foundry at Swansea University.

  • Ann Blandford: Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at University College London.

  • Cory Lebson: Principal User Experience Researcher with 20+ years of experience and author of “The UX Careers Handbook.”

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Interaction Design Foundation - IxDF. (2016, June 1). What are Design Failures?. Interaction Design Foundation - IxDF.