Design Debt
The mess that builds up when design decisions are rushed or never revisited.
Definition
Accumulated inconsistency and unresolved design decisions that make future design work slower and the product less coherent.
Craft convention. True because the industry converged on it. Breaking it costs familiarity, not correctness.
On this plate
In plain language
The mess that builds up when design decisions are rushed or never revisited.
Example
Five button styles, three date formats and two words for the same object.
Local chart
TERM·098 · Region X · Grid D6
This entry and the entries it is stated to connect with. Each line is labelled with what the connection means.
Continue from here
Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.
Deeper reading
The full entry behind this definition.
- Design System AdoptionSYS·005 · Design system
- Consistency and StandardsHEUR·004 · Heuristic
Nearby in the Atlas
Adjacent territory, found through shared tags rather than a stated link.