Output versus effort trend: When to stop design

I have been involved in two products and both have been pretty extensive in terms of design. One of the important things I have been noticing about the way it is shaping up is the way I have been working. The trend is that at a point the enhancement or improvement in the design ceases to slow down and the effort involved in bringing those enhancements is much more.

What happens is that in the initial phases the output to effort is less as most of the effort goes in getting a hang on the problem. Once the problem is somewhat understood the output shoots up. That’s because the designer understands what are issues or problems that need to be addresses. As the progress goes on there reaches a point when all the problems at a basic level is fixed. Now it’s the turn for enhancement or small improvements. At this level the output that comes is much less that the input required as this deals more at a detail level.

That’s the critical moment; if you ask me there is no end to improvement - it can go for ages. But as a professional we have to decide what is “just good enough”. At a certain level it becomes very difficult for an untrained eye to find a difference between enhancements. So why do we need such an effort which can not be noticed by our user. Now the “golden question” here is WHEN TO STOP. That’s a critical question. A bad decision on this can lead to a poorly finished product. While if you don't stop at a point the product enhancement may not be so much while you might be wasting a significant about of energy and resources. This may sound trivial, but is also one of the critical design decisions – one that can make the difference between a good and a bad product.