How to stay on track while designing, and why it's important to do so.

Do you lose track of purpose during a project? Losing track of purpose while working on a project can dramatically decrease the outcome. But how do you know if you have lost track? The first step is to remember what design is all about.

So, what is design? Design is, simply put: problem solving.

Whether a company needs a new logo because they aren't being recognized, a small town business needs business cards to make their business known, a new startup needs a new website for clients who browse on their mobile phones, or anything in-between, design is creating a visual solution to a problem.

Often designers - both new and veteran - will lose sight of the problem they are trying to solve with a particular project, ultimately forgetting about the purpose of design. If you are a designer, chances are you have lost track of the purpose of one of your projects at least once before; and chances are you'll do it again.

Perhaps you got carried away with the flashy effects, or maybe you wanted to create something new and unique, but no matter how you put it: the purpose of a project got lost, the ultimate purpose of design was forgotten.

Forgetting the purpose behind a project can lead to devastating effects, including an extremely low-quality final product. To avoid this problem, remember what the purpose behind design is, and remember what problem you are trying to solve.

Remember that the best way to solve a problem is often the simplest: if a company needs a new logo because they aren't being recognized, a chaotic, effects-filled logo would not be a great solution. Instead, a simple logo that would be easy to recognize is the right way to go. Or what about a small town business that needs to make their business known with new business cards? Sure, designing a business card in a unique way would get attention, but simply printing the business logo on one side and a quirky, attention-grabbing summary of the business on the other would be a better design solution.

If you lose track or purpose during a project, don't fret. All you have to do is recall that design is about problem solving, focus on the problem you have been presented with, find the simplest and most effective way to solve that problem, and produce great results.

This has been a guest post by Tanner Christensen. Tanner is a web specialist and designer who writes helpful, inspiring, and creative internet-related articles on his blog Internet Hunger.