I was catching up on my blog reading, which has suffered as of late due to busy-ness (and business), and finally got to read Adaptive Path’s Seven Resolutions for 2006. The first resolution states:

It??????s easy to create the same shopping basket, search mechanism, or navigation scheme over and over. Instead, plan time into project schedules to rethink solutions to common architecture and interaction design problems. We shouldn??????t settle for a design that works well enough ??????? we should strive to make our designs better each time.

I’m not big on settling. I’m the type of person who will ask “why?” to some of the most mundane design decisions. So I like this resolution.

People often turn to a solution that has worked in the past without giving much thought to whether it applies for the current problem. I am, of course, part of this group.

Given the rapidly changing nature of practices and solutions for the web, taking the time to rethink problems is paramount, because those who get stuck in the rut don’t get anywhere. Their solutions become banal and dated.

So rethink, re-examine, redesign. Make it better each time. Now break!