Everyone has their defaults. Default outfit, default dinner, TV show, drive home … you get the idea. We choose these things because we know they work. There IS a beauty in that. But what happens when we consistently choose our defaults? A routine is formed.

Don’t get me wrong, every weekday morning I do that same thing in the same order. I brush my teeth while petting Franklin, put my contacts in, take my vitamins, do my makeup, hair, and then get dressed. There is comfort in having a routine. They help us get through our day. But what happens when we stick to our routine, our defaults, when designing?

We are currently overhauling a website. The client used the words: “We want to blow up the current website and start fresh.” Which is very exciting, because that means we get to bring new design elements to the table. But one thing we’ve noticed throughout this lengthy process is that the longer we tweak design, the closer we get to our defaults. We pick the same sans-serif, all caps header. We start to put content in boxes—literal squares upon squares. We start to stray further and further away from the dynamic design we started with.

What we don’t realize is when we choose our default, we deny our brain the opportunity to be creative. Breaking up our routine encourages our brain to make new connections. This is difficult, but so important to remember, especially when working on a project for a long period of time. We need to be better than the standard. Listen to Gosling. (For the record, I am not a Gap hater. I just appreciate his point.)

So let’s NOT choose a carousel of images for the homepage header—or anywhere on the website, for that matter. Let’s be better. Let’s break our design habits and think creatively. And when we find ourselves reaching for the defaults, go back to the creative brief that was established in the beginning. Review the project goals, and remind everyone (especially yourself) of them. Use the goals as a filter for all decisions. And then reach for better. For more.

It’s crazy how easily we can overlook our initial intentions.