22 Sept 2026
How do you know when a design is done?
You've been nudging the same layout by a pixel for the last hour. Is it finished, or have you just had enough of it? Knowing when a design is done is the one thing nobody teaches you, and both ways of getting it wrong have a price.
The question
How do you decide when a design is actually done, versus when you're just running out of time or patience and calling it finished?
Finished and out of time can look identical from the outside, and often from the inside too. Design thinking says iterate until it's done, which is fine until you notice that nothing in it tells you when a design is done. Anyone working without a client or a deadline runs into this one sooner or later.
What we talk about
Before that, a debt from last episode. The rule of thirds and the golden ratio turn up in every guide to composition, usually as one idea with a shell drawn over it. We trace where they actually come from, through a phrase coined in 1797 about something else, a Victorian photography book and a US Army manual from 1979. Then what happens when someone checks whether untrained eyes prefer them at all.
Then the thing every designer works out eventually. People say the process is what matters, and then they react to whatever looks nice. We pull that apart: why a polished prototype pulls a room into arguing about the details, what a deliberately ugly first version gets you instead, and where the line sits between how something functions and how it works.
Which brings us to the question itself. We get into imposter syndrome as something to calibrate rather than cure, and why being fast and right about everything can make you worse at the part of the job that needs doubt. Then how requirements, a specification and a definition of done turn a feeling into something you can check against.
And perfection, which doesn't exist. We chase what a deadline is for when nobody's waiting on you, and why saying one out loud to another person does something that setting it privately doesn't.
Mentioned in this episode
From Hidden By Design
Design thinking (S2E8) (https://www.hiddenbydesign.net/2023/12/13/s2e8-design-thinking/): the iterate-until-it's-done loop that the answer leans on.
What is intuitive design (Episode 7) (https://www.hiddenbydesign.net/2023/04/18/episode-7-what-is-intuitive-design/): intuition being different from person to person, referred back to on air without a number.
Also mentioned
Martin's audio drama (https://open.spotify.com/show/212auTQGlm5XGvGWuebKpF): the self-written, self-produced passion piece with no deadline on it, which had to be called finished anyway.
Steve Jobs on design (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs): "design is not how something looks, it's how something works", the line the works-versus-functions split is built on.
Remarks on Rural Scenery, John Thomas Smith, 1797 (https://archive.org/details/remarksonruralsc00smit): where the phrase rule of thirds is coined, in a passage about perspective and tonal mass in painting.
Pictorial Effect in Photography, Henry Peach Robinson, 1869 (https://archive.org/details/pictorialeffecti00robi): the first to put the point of interest off dead centre, by observation and with no maths behind it.
The Library of Amateur Photography, Volume 3 (https://archive.org/details/libraryofamateur03amer): the first version that resembles the rule as it's taught today.
Composition for Photographers, 1952 (link missing): where the golden mean gets attributed to Pythagoras.
The US Army journalist's soldier manual, 1979 (link missing): where the rule of thirds and the golden rectangle get welded into one credible-looking thing.
The nautilus shell (https://divisbyzero.com/2008/09/14/does-gold-tarnish-the-golden-spiral-and-nautilus-shells/): the reference everyone reaches for, and the one that gets checked here.
Bartle's player types (https://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm): killer, explorer, socialiser and achiever, used to settle who a piece of work is for.
Rabbit Rocket Racing (https://polyspice.com/rabbit-rocket-racing/): the Polyspice game whose two pillars, fun flying and friendly chaos, work as the calibration example.
Parkinson's Law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law): work expands to fill the time available for its completion, looked up live at the end.
Got a question of your own?
Got a design question or dilemma you're stuck on? Send it to Thorbjørn and Martin through the contact form at hiddenbydesign.net (https://www.hiddenbydesign.net/contact/) and it might become a future episode.
