Over-focusing on the first thing we learn stops us from seeing other, better solutions – and it happens whether we like it or not.
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s easy and natural to generate impulse solutions to problems as they arise. This is human nature. We’re so good at it that it happens without effort, and it makes us susceptible to the anchoring effect: a cognitive bias that makes the first answer we come up with crowd out everything that comes after.
This can be especially problematic when it comes to design thinking. There are large numbers of ways to solve any design or UX problem, and it’s much too easy to fixate on the first one that emerges. Any idea you come up with will seem like a good idea – to you.
Avoiding irrational attachment to early ideas – I call them reactive solutions – is precisely the purpose of brainstorming with more than one person. Leave it to one guy alone in a room, and the scope of possible solutions falls dramatically. This is also the reason why team play is an essential element of UX and design practice: one mind alone simply isn’t enough to cover all the angles.
To avoid reactive solutions and the anchoring bias, keep these points in mind:
Make UX strategy and design thinking a social exercise. When designing for interactivity and people, it makes sense that the best ideas will be generated by people interacting.
It’s nearly impossible for the first idea to be the best. Unless you somehow catch lightning in a bottle, the quality of solutions will increase in direct proportion to time spent. Put in the time, get better results.
Think first; design later. Especially for visual designers, our brains tend to run straight for the canvas, making any hare-brained idea seem better than it is. If you have to move to the design phase to make a point, you’re probably making the wrong point.