Building software is always going to create problems. It’s unfortunate, but design and development is about tradeoffs, compromises and decisions. The key is how to make those decisions and deal with the outcomes.

Even the simplest of ideas create conflicts between elements. Place a menu at the top of a page and it allows further room for page content. However the narrow width reduces the space for menu choices and this skews the menu alignment. Is this a bug or a design conflict?

This is what I call conflict problems - an expected action is affected by another expected action, which equals an unexpected result.

For example, say we had a text messaging program that allows you to communicate back and forth in a loop. Next, a word is programmed in, to allow the loop to be terminated (eg STOP).

What happens when this message is sent: “Stop waiting for me, I’ll see you inside”? The loop finishes, but that’s not the intended action. The user sees the loop has finished, but in their eyes the script is broken!

This is where the user can work with the programmer. Don’t just tell them you have a problem. Tell the developer exactly what the problem is and the solution for it.

It’s surprisingly easy. Cut the problem in half, determine which half is affected, and keep going. What happens when you restart the loop? Do other words have the same effect, what was the last message to work OK? Think about what you are trying to achieve and take that solution to the developer.

This way the developer spends their time building a better product and you now have a well thought out solution for this issue.