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Design debt 1:10
A 70-second explainer of Design debt, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Design debt demo
What this video covers
Design debt is the accumulated cost of design shortcuts, inconsistencies and unaddressed problems that pile up over time and make a product harder to use and harder to change - the design equivalent of technical debt. Each quick fix or one-off component that doesn't fit the system is a small loan; unpaid, the interest compounds into an incoherent, brittle experience.
Each quick, off-system addition looked harmless - but watch the inconsistency and friction pile up until the whole thing is a mess that's slow to change and confusing to use. That's design debt compounding. Building on a system instead keeps it coherent and fast to extend. A shortcut now is a loan; the interest is paid later, by users in confusion and by the team in rework.
