I’ve done it yet again. I decided to create a new design for FusionFox. I think most designers try to adjust their personal/freelance site at least every few years. I have spent tons of time on this; probably 10 times as long as it normally takes me to design and code a website. Here’s why.

Designing for yourself is a complex, frustrating process. I tend to think I’m one of those people that has good taste in web design. I can tell that what I’m making isn’t the greatest. I always wish it could be a little better and have something extra that’s going to make me love it. But after several design iterations, and several bouts with disappointment, I realized that I’m probably never going to love my work. I like it. I’m pleased with this design, but I don’t love it. I don’t feel like I’m going to change the design world with this, or suddenly gather thousands of design followers on Twitter.

I suppose it’s my appetite for design excellence that keeps me going. It makes me try harder and try repeatedly to be better, and to create things that more closely match what I know in my head is excellent.

To get this design from a point where I sorta liked it, to where I actually liked it, I had to try a lot of things. And for me, “trying” isn’t just whipping up ideas in Fireworks. I have to design them on a canvas, build them out in code, and play with the interface before I know I like it or not. Such a long gamut of idea validation requires time. Lots of it. So in the end, this little side project has been going on since last Spring (about 9 months ago).

I hope there are things I can learn about design and about myself that will make designing for myself a much faster process in the future, but I guess if it started to be easy, I’d lose interest in web design altogether.