What is good design? The ‘Interactive Design Foundation’ draws upon concepts developed by Dieter Rams, saying,
‘It makes a product useful and understandable, is innovative, aesthetic, unobtrusive, honest, long-lasting, thorough to the last detail, environmentally friendly, and involves as little design as possible.’
I agree with this statement, however, I also think what is perceived as good design is extremely subjective. Everyone views the world differently, completes different day-to-day tasks, and values different things. Something that a 21-year-old woman might describe as the epitome of great design is likely different from what an 85-year-old man would describe. With that in mind, I will be focussing on things that I, a 21-year-old woman with an interest in design, enjoy.
I think that the nature of designing new products, spaces, or ideas makes it impossible to have a certain list of things that it must fulfill to be considered ‘great’. Everything has different priorities, and a good designer should be able to recognise when to prioritise each design element. ‘Form over function’ is a phrase often used in a negative way and as an engineer, I have been taught to believe that the most important thing is how well a product functions. However, as a product designer, I have been taught that form is just as important and in some cases maybe even more so.
As a product design engineer, I believe that form and function need to work harmoniously to create a product that can be considered truly great, and this can sometimes be very hard to achieve, meaning the people that do achieve this deserve all the more praise.
Throughout this blog I will be discussing what I perceive as great design, talking about things I encounter in my day-to-day life, and detailing why they are worthy of a post. I will be talking about the elements of each object that make it great, or sometimes discussing what makes something so unpleasant to use. I will be trying to see how each thing can be related back to Dieter Rams' principles of good design and try to understand why I enjoy them.
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