Design is compromise • Hacker News Board

Re: Design is compromise

#101

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Mon, Jul 27, 2026, 6:03 PM UTC

locknitpicker wrote: post #94

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #9

Absolutely spot-on. However, most folks (not just designers) have a difficult time with compromise, these days. It's become a value judgment (You're "weak," if you compromise). I learned, when I was a kid, that I can't always get what I want (I think that someone even sang about it, way back then). The art of compromise, is one of the most valuable skills I had, during my career, and I'm still at it. In fact, I was j…

> However, most folks (not just designers) have a difficult time with compromise, these days. It's become a value judgment (You're "weak," if you compromise). I think you got it exactly backwards. I'll explain why. Your bias (and the blogger's) rears its head by the way you chose words such as "compromise" to discuss design processes. Words reflect and shape thought processes, and by choosing words such as "compromis…

I don’t consider it a conflict-driven process, but it seems that you know me, better than I know myself, so I won’t argue.

Re: Design is compromise

#102

Post by antonvs » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 8:45 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #54

> Compromise is neither good nor bad, it’s something we do every day. It’s decision making. Prioritizing. Deciding that one thing is more important than another. It's AI slop. Edit: as pointed to me, it says 2018. I'd be damned. Guess that makes it merely part of the "LinkedIn post" training set pushing AI towards such style!

[flagged]

Re: Design is compromise

#103

Post by bryzaguy » Thu, Jul 30, 2026, 1:41 PM UTC

makeitdouble wrote: post #82

bryzaguy wrote: post #70

I fundamentally disagree with the premise. Why are we attempting to change the meaning of the word compromise? “compromise” and “has trade-offs” are NOT synonymous. The antithesis of compromise is to make strong decisions that WILL alienate people, but will better target your intended audience. That, IMHO, is a great thing.

> strong decisions that WILL alienate people, but will better target your intended audience. That, IMHO, is a great thing That's supposing you have a well defined intended audience. Many people see it as a prerequisite, that's also how we ended up with the personas during research. I'd argue there are many designs that should go beyond a specific intended audience and allow for larger reach and minimize alienating pe…

Design is an art and, as Rick Ruben says, success is not in your control. Also Rick says the audience comes last. You can find examples of strong choices that did not succeed but in your example it doesn’t sound like these mouse makers were designing for themselves first.

Re: Design is compromise

#104

Post by tmcdos » Sun, Aug 02, 2026, 5:05 PM UTC

necovek wrote: post #52

saltcured wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People seem focused on the interpersonal conflict angle in the comments here, i.e. winning and losing in a battle of wills. I think its just as important to realize ideas themselves can be conflicted or contradictory, and that practical action requires compromise. Many seductive ideas may not be well-formed if you really dig deeply enough. It's not just economic or political pragmatism. Even the solo designer/thinker…

I believe people are focusing on that because that's a traditional meaning of the word — Merriam-Webster uses "concession" in 2 out of 3 definitions. I would say that an impersonal "compromise" was more of a figure of speech that evolved into another meaning of the word. The OP here talks about a compromise between two ideas, which means that it could be a single person making trade-offs based on their conscious choi…

Normally, a pragmatic engineer would answer this question with "The glass is twice big than needed"