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Combating Decision Fatigue in UX Design
If you’re like most people, you’re probably feeling a little overwhelmed right now. In the UX field, there are so many things to do and to consider, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information coming at us every day. This is decision fatigue — the feeling that we can’t keep up with all the decisions we need to make in order to be successful at our jobs or lives.
As UX designers, we often feel both macro and micro-level decision fatigue. Designers are constantly making choices on behalf of users on every single pixel of our design. This can lead to hundreds of micro-decisions in our brains every single day. The fatigue can oftentimes cause us to burn out and lesser-thorough decisions.
By exploring wants to prevent and relieve decision fatigue, you can prevent decision fatigue from affecting your productivity levels and quality of life.
“Be decisive. A wrong decision is generally less disastrous than indecision.”
Bernhard Langer
When it doubt, revisit the goal
Sometimes decision fatigue can be a result of weighing too many options all at once and not having a clear insight into the weight of each option. Whether you’re stuck between one variation of design and another or you’re stuck between two different approaches for collaborating with stakeholders, there’s a full-proof solution to alleviate some of this fatigue. Take a step back and remind yourself of the goal and objective at hand.
- What is it that this design needs to accomplish?
- How are we ultimately defining success?
By answering these questions, you’ll be able to have more clarity into the direction to pursue. At the least, you’ll know how to start prioritizing the options at hand.
Document your decisions
Oftentimes, what contributes to the anxiety of decision-making is also having to retain the past decisions that we’ve made. Take a notepad or a digital one and write down difficult decisions that you’ve made that day as they happen. By documenting your decision, you may feel a sense of permanency and solidity in that decision which could…
