What is good design ?

A designer is the users advocate in a company, this great responsibility is the source of defining good design, which can be taken to simply mean placing the user and their needs at the center of the company.

One can conceive good design to constitute a set of principles. Several famous designers have spent time to conceive solid principles over the years, but in my experience as a digital design thinker, practitioner, advocate the work of Dieter Rams trumps all as he explicitly created his principles to answer the question  “What is good design ?”.

Rams was the head of design at Braun the appliance maker for several decades and is responsible for someone the most iconic consumer products of the 20th Century. In the the 1970’s he began the process to develop in formative principles by as he claims asking himself one simple question : “Is my design good design ?”.

Even though he was an industrial designer predating the digital era the principles. The principle he conceived are so universal that till this day they should dictate how design is approached.

Ram’s principles which will follow are all guided by a single firm belief that:

Designing a good product , service, or experience can only be possible if an effort is made to understand people, there needs, and there objectives.

A product should have a function, and a specific function. Anything that doesn’t directly or indirectly aid a user in attaining their goals through that should be eliminated.

How can we do this ?

A critical first step in ensuring your product is useful is making sure you understand your user’s journey. This ensures that you’re creating an experience that’s both relevant to your user and includes something for every stage of the journey.

Every single day the digital industry grows and new trends emerge. What Rams’ wanted was us us to approach every project with an innovative mindset; to keep an open mind to new trends, and to be on the constant lookout for unique ways to stand out and improve performance.

Products should be easy-to-use, easy-to-understand. If a product requires inordinate instruction to be usable, something’s wrong.

People shouldn’t be unsure of how any aspect of your product functions or run into any roadblocks that stop them from completing a task.

An obtrusive product is an over-designed product. When creating a product remember that you aim

Create a product that gets out of the way of the user and allows them to do what they want to do, while guiding them into a productive, and delightful method of doing it.

Good design shows you exactly what the object does and nothing more. It doesn’t imply features, quality or longevity it can’t deliver on .

As a the user representative it’s the designers’ responsibility to provide your users with an experience that puts them at ease when it comes to this.

If you give someone what they want and need there will be no reason for them to care that perhaps your product hasn’t changed in a bit.

Always design with an aim to create things that are evergreen lasting for years and years.

Have you ever noticed some objects are 90% well-designed. But the designers mess up on something seemingly trivial detail which derails the whole object?

Always, look at your ideas from as many points of view as possible and really decide what’s best for the user and their goals.

Purity is attractive. Design for designs sake isn’t aesthetic because it doesn’t lend itself to the function of the object.

A good habit to get into is to review every element of a finished design and ask yourself “How does this build towards the overall goal of the product?”

Design should always be intentional. Anything that doesn’t serve the user should be eliminated.

With less clutter, you can achieve more. Your users will be able to digest more content, download more offers, and be more invested in your company.

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Some parting advice:

People make subtle design mistakes when designing everyday objects constantly. To practice good design always design things for people don’t design solutions for your problems.