I would like to start by thanking everyone who took time to read and post their thoughts on this topic. I would also like to thank Jacqueline Geary for her diligence in editing. The purpose of TIAL is to contribute to the design community, and breed positive discussion that all of us can benefit from.

Be prepared as this is a long post, but I wanted everyones opinion to be heard.

I posed the question “Quality or Quantity?” in an effort to get some feedback from the design community on this subject as. Most of the results were pretty much inline with what I expected.

I would like to unpack this some more and hopefully show that it is not Quality vs. Quantity, but Quality and Quantity. It should be our goal to provide a steady diet of both. So lets look at what you submitted.

Quality

Here is the feedback you gave on voting for Quality

Garth
“Always quality for me. Unfortunately that often comes at the expense of my time and resources—but always worth it in the end.”

Khayyam Wakil
“I’d much rather have less work and produce better quality work than to perform a job that just requires enough effort so as I don’t get fired.
I’d choose to be a starving artist rather than a rich one with no integrity.
My two cents.”

Kyle Reddoch
“It is all about the Quality of work you do for your client!!! You may want to get Quantity, especially in this hard economy times that are among us right now but Quality is what sets you apart from your competition.”

David Link
“I cast my vote for ‘Quality’, but that’s really because it’s my moral obligation. My overall goal for every project is to deliver a product of utmost quality, however there are many factors that can take away from it.

• Time constraints can reduce the amount of time I can spend working.
• Budget constraints can reduce the amount of time the client can AFFORD for me to work.
• A project’s potential can affect my motivation to do my very best.

The list could go on, I’m sure. Obviously, we designers would prefer that each and every project be of the best quality we could output. But because of client’s temporal expectations, financial constraints, or personal scenarios, ‘Quantity’ can never be TOO far off one’s mind. Especially if you’re the one dealing with the company’s bottom line.”

kyle steed
“Hands down I have to say quality.
There is no quality in the amount of quantity that some firms and companies produce. It’s the garbage in, garbage out system.
But like romancing a woman, you have to take your time and carefully finesse her with love and attention. Making sure not to miss any small detail. Sure it may take longer, but in the end you’ll both be satisfied.”

Robert
“I vote for quality, and quality only. Maybe because I’m not looking (yet) on the financial part of this business. I’m just another geek who likes to hack code all day. I just don’t feel like releasing an application in to the wild before I tested it as much as I can (I could never test it as a “beta” phase), to really know it. If it’s going to brake the deadline, then brake it. If it’s going to be less money for me, so be it. But that application is my work (or partly my work), and I’ll do all that is in my powers to make it work better.

Perhaps, when I’ll have a family to look after, I’ll do most of my work as quickly as I can, to just get it done and get cash into the house. But, also I’ll have a side project, for my pleasure only, and for that, only the quality will be important.”

Matt
“Quality, always. If it’s set up so you can have quantity AND quality, go for it, but if not always go for quality. I’ve run into this several times when I’ve been coding for classes or writing reports or similar times. Often, there are facets I could add that aren’t needed, but that would possibly cause bugs in the overall code, or I could add more words to a report instead of leaving it polished.”

Liz
“It’s all simple math. Higher quality can make you larger $$$ amounts, therefor you can take on less work and make the same amount of (or more!) money as you would from working yourself into a frenzy with a bunch of low-budget jobs.”

LaurenMarie – Creative Curio
“In-house designer here. I can totally relate to the project load that comes through and the pressure of deadlines. Yes, everyone has deadlines, but when your “clients” can come to your desk and ask what the holdup is, the pressure is much more in-your-face!

I voted for Quality because I have a very high standard for design (it almost feels like a moral obligation to provide the highest quality possible) and I find it personally fulfilling to take on meaningful projects where I can show the client the value of good design and explain why what I’ve done will work for their target audience. This is as opposed to what I see Quantity as: production work, executing someone else’s ideas (which is one thing I hate about a lot of in-house work).

On the other hand, I can see Quantity as advantageous, too, because then you get a lot of experience start to finish and you can learn quickly what works and what doesn’t in the process, which is definitely valuable.”

Martin Canchola Your Web 2.0 Consultant
“Quality is more important! Especially if your writing an information product such as an ebook or a blog post. People don’t want you to drag on and on and on. Nor do they want a watered down article because you think its better for the search engines! Write for your readers and they will link back to you because of the quality of the content not the quantity.”

Jin Y
“I feel another important aspect when it comes to Quality vs Quantity that’s often not talked about is: a designer’s portfolio.
Last year my team and I spent a few good months interviewing potential designers to fill a position. A lot of them have some nice work in their online portfolio. However one thing always confused me was, the good works were often mixed with some outdated, not so good work. I think for a web designer, it’s more career damaging to include sub-par work. In this case, quality trumps quantity. I’d rather see one excellent site design in the portfolio, than five so-so ones.”

netta
“Quality over quantity. Your reputation is built on the quality of work produced: a dog turd covered with icing is just a dog turd underneath.”

Daryl Walker-Smith
“I’d absolutely have to go with Quality over Quantity, however, when working for a commercial organization where quick turnarounds for banners/graphics etc. are essential to the business, time is often not available to produce the level of quality that I’d like. I’d say in most commercial organizations a decent balance between the two is usually required.”

Christian Messer
“Hands down – Quality. Why? Because we are in a business and field that we LOVE…we are Passionate about design…right?

I know I am – I eat, sleep, breathe, feel, drink design 24/7 – it is a love affair I have had for over 12 years. Some might say quantity, in order to have the bills paid, the kids fed, and a roof over their head, and that might work for some people.

Not for me – my work (all of our work) is a symbol of who we are, a little slice of ourselves. Yes, we let it go, we have to…but it is still a piece that came from within our mind…our genius.

How many times have you come to the end of a project and noticed one little pixel off, or a hairline offset of something that is supposed to be exactly centered? Did you let it go? Or did you fix it before it left your hands?

That’s what I mean – everything we do is a representation of us, our values, the love and TLC we give to our creations. If it’s schlock, and was done half-hazard, just to get it out the door on time…have we done our job?”

Joann Sondy
“Quality will always prevail over quantity.

This is the main reason I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart and similar companies. Even in these tough economic times, I’m more inclined to support the local grocer, baker and gift shop vs the national chains.

As a designer, I’ve always focused on quality. However, due to unbelievable deadlines some sacrifices have been made; but those are rare occurrences.”

Thoughts

I would agree with most of what everyone has said in regards to quality. As designers / developers it should be top priority on our list to deliver quality designs / products to our clients and employers. This is easier said than done. Quality is relative to the project scope… we must not err in thinking that Quality=Good Design.

Sound, well planned design is a major part of the quality of a project, but only within the framework of meeting the clients needs. “Quality is a combination of good user experience complimented by great design, and topped off with timely delivery.”

Quantity / Balanced

Since the “Quality” feedback had larger numbers, I have combined the comments for Quantity and Balanced Approach into one section.

Patrick Algrim
“Great topic. Overall, most designers will say they choose quality. But who is to say what is quality and what isn’t? Most people don’t recognize that the things they are looking at are actually bad. There is no education on that judgment.

As a designer, it’s great to do amazing quality work, but if you want to do less quantity and higher quality, your prices go up and your client amount depletes. Resulting in an evening amount of income. Tough to say. Personally, I think there are people out there in the web world who shouldn’t be making an impact on others, it’s causing a downward spiral to all of the Web.”

John Wang
“I didn’t see any votes or comments for Quantity. And rightfully so in my mind. I do agree with most of the comments on the restrictions of quality. Especially in an agency environment because if there’s no real consensus on what “Quality” means, then you can’t really achieve it. Also, the time restriction on when the project must be delivered. So it would mostly be the highest achievable quality in the provided time frame.”

yul
“Indeed, quality is important, in probably most of the cases. But I think you have to “estimate” your work :

If you are hired for re-design nytimes.com, you’ll probably spend more time to achieve your work, than if you are working for your baker’s website.

I don’t mean “let’s produce shi*** work”, but “quality” requires personnal opinion, and that’s subjective.
Reputation comes with client’s satisfaction, right ?

So give them what they want :
You can send your design, or spend 30 more min on a “drop shadow”, and your client won’t notice this last little change…

Quality ok, but not Perfectionism.”

Chris Avore
“I think the problem is exactly what we see here–everyone sticks out their chest and says gallantly that they will only take on jobs they can devote their best work to, but is that really how it works every day?

Isn’t the slip into taking on too many projects caused not by accepting 5 jobs at once, but taking on one job you think you can get done in ten hours that ends up taking 50?

Or thinking you have a reliable subcontractor who flakes out, leaving you holding the bag while you either do the work yourself or scramble to find someone qualified enough to handle it mid-cycle?

I find a good balance between multiple projects is a job in itself–massaging some jobs to slow down and others to speed up and be done with–but it’s always a fluid experience that can be upset or tranquilized by any number of external factors.”

JT-Money
“A great rule I try to follow and push myself to achieve is a quantity of quality. I was browsing some great design work I was seeing in some community galleries early in my career and I asked one of my mentors why the artist wasn’t well known or picked up by top agencies. He responded that you have to have a balance between the time and quality of your work. If I create beautiful, well organized and innovative design, but it takes me 13 months to complete then I have missed the mark. However if I can achieve the same result in 2 weeks I have accomplished much.

We will always have corporate managers/clients who will give us insane deadlines but I believe being a good designers isn’t just in our color theory but in your ability to rise above any deadline I know I’ve pulled some 30hr+ days in order to achieve the quality while time (and sleep) was not an option.

To sum it up – We should never sacrifice quality for quantity, but strive for a quantity of quality.”

Trent
“As a student, I am self taught with web design. I love design and creativity and have spent hours and hours exploring new designs. That being said, I’m going to present a voice for quantity for two reasons:

The more work and projects you’ve been a part of, the better you get. Every site or logo you design or program you build contains elements from previous works. By increasing the amount of work and not limiting yourself to projects, I believe it opens up the ability for you to meet and go above and beyond the requirements for your task.

Also, I do not believe in recreating the wheel. Obviously if the wheel is broken or you can’t use it for what you are working on, start over. But, in order to take on more jobs to gain more experiences, I believe in working efficiently and economically to finish projects in order to move on to the next.

That being said, I have only designed a few websites, so I’m just an amateur.”

Owen
“I think quality is of prime importance BUT one can be mislaid into thinking it’s an end in itself. Sometimes the best is the enemy of the good and quality can’t be taken in isolation of other factors like client requirements, opportunity to solicit feedback and hell, even the bills you need to pay.”

DerFrankie
Quantity

I think the question should not be quality vs. quantity – as the maximum of quantity you should ever accept is the one you can bare. The problems present itself when you don’t have enough jobs.

To understand how to avoid calm phases (or to not panic at them) and to get a steady stream of work in the “qualitiy-league” you want is one part you have to learn.

Quality
Quality should not be connected to the type of work, but to your output.
Establishing what is the “quality” work you want to do it the best way you can. Do you like giant corporate design jobs or small logo jobs. Just like a shop. If you sell high class stuff you need less customers, middle rangte you need more and low-cost you need the masses.

Conclusion: Not Quality vs. Quantity but the best quality and the right amount.

Thoughts

Though the votes / comments for Quantity were much less, I don’t think that it loses value, or is dwarfed by Quality.

Quality and Quantity go hand in hand. At the highest level we should hope to provide the highest quantity of quality work without sacrificing one to gain the other.

Some of us we have established ourselves to the point that we can choose the type of work we take, and so quality becomes a bit easier. For those of us just starting we are seizing every opportunity to design and build a reputation for quality work. There are also those of us who are trying to pay bills by providing quality designs / products, as well as those (such as myself) who work in house at a marketing company or design firm. Each one of these situations provides its challenges in marrying quality and quantity.

I firmly believe that the most success is gained by providing the best with what you have. Not every project will allow for hours and hours of well thought out design; deadlines and finances can change the scope of a project very quickly, so being able to provide the best quality based on the needs and constraints of the situation is of upmost value to ourselves, and even more so to the client.

Our ability to adapt to each situation and provide the right quantity of quality will provide more opportunities for successful, fulfilling, projects and client relationships.

Hopefully this discussion and article can be an encouragement for us when we find ourselves trying to marry Quality and Quantity… it can be done.

What techniques have you used to help in tying these two together? Some use frameworks and build libraries of graphics and code snippets to help save time. I would love to hear your thoughts.

~ Aaron I

*All articles on TIAL edited by Jacqueline Geary