The Law of Diminishing Returns

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Some animation can make things feel natural. Too many animations becomes distracting.

Some line spacing can help legibility. Too much hurts it.

Some alt text is contextual. Too much alt text is noise.

Some padding feels comfy. Too much padding feels exposed.

Some specificity is manageable. Too much specificity is untenable.

Some technical debt is healthy. Too much of it becomes a burden.

Some corner rounding is classy. Too much is just a circle.

Some breakpoints are fluid. Too many of them becomes adaptive.

Some margin adds breathing room. Too much margin collapses things.

Some images add context. Too many images takes a long time to download (and impacts the environment).

Some JavaScript enhances interactions. Too much becomes a bottleneck.

A font pairing creates a typographic system. Too many pairings creates a visual distraction.

Some utility classes come in handy. Too many eliminates a separation of concerns.

Some data helps make decisions. Too much data kills the vibe.

Some AI can help write the boring parts of code. Too much puts downward pressure on code quality.

Some SEO improves search ranking. Too much mutes the human voice.

Some testing provides good coverage. Too much testing requires its own maintenance.

A few colors establish a visual hierarchy. Too many establish a cognitive dissonance.

Some planning helps productivity. Too much planning creates delays.

Striking the right balance can be tough. We don’t want cool mama bear’s porridge or hot papa’s bear porridge, but something right in the middle, like baby bear’s porridge.

The Law of Diminishing Returns originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.