Why You Should Document Your Design Rejections

When exploring new design directions, we're all pretty good at quickly dismissing potential paths for various reasons—sometimes it's about resonance, other times it's about the target audience context. Removing low-hanging fruit is easy and useful early on, but as brainstorming sessions stretch on, those previously rejected ideas may creep back into the mix. This problem often manifests when newer team members enter the project later in the process and miss the initial discussion. That's why it's useful to track why you passed on them the first time.

Things always change with new insights, but don't lose the rationale behind those early critiques. In many fields and projects, the most critical decisions revolve around what not to do. For example, updating websites is obviously cheap and fast, but reprinting books can be costly. Consider how long hair takes to grow back from a bad haircut—it's a reminder that a project's conditions should determine how much you need to think about what to avoid. A misunderstood death metal logo is less concerning than how it ultimately feels, but an incorrect graphic in medical product instructions is extremely high stakes.

Once you've committed to a direction, skim through your rejection pile one last time as a blind spot check. Keep those critiques handy but quarantined—track them in a separate document from your tasks and notes. You don't want to dwell on them when you're deep in the work. Having visual "antibodies" in your mood board or explorations can be distracting, so keeping them contained in a single place that's easy to reference but out of sight until needed strikes a good balance.

In the end, knowing what not to do can be just as valuable as knowing the right path to take.