A Warning On Reusing Solutions

We have all done it on projects. We have heard our clients request something and immediately think, “We can just reuse what we did for [client name].” Even though it is tempting, it can have bad results. Here is a good warning:

“If we continually institute the same code for each project, we run the risk of implementing the same solution to every problem. It can become more difficult to provide new solutions to usability concerns. We end up sizing up each user request as an exercise to prove that ‘we’ve got code for that.'” – Travis Lowdermilk, User-Centered Design (pg. 107)

So be mindful of reusing solutions for different problems to avoid potential usability issues.