This is one of many fake trees lit up in Geneva for Christmas. It may be a little gaudy, but it’s a great metaphor for the webbed nature of the internet and the amount of ‘new’ stuff we have at our fingertips. The fact that we can be exposed to and can search for just about anything via the web is an amazing feat – especially when the birth of the web is only just over 20 year’s old. For example, we compose some 3.6 trillion words every day on email and social media — the equivalent of 36 million books EVERY DAY! Whether this is $h*t or not is another question… hopefully the quantity won’t overrun the quality, but I think it’s wishful thinking as more information doesn’t make-th better communication. There should be more emphasis on the quality side and the pre-web era can provide some ground rules to keep our quality in check.
In the early 1980s, Dieter Rams, a German industrial designer, was increasingly concerned with the amount of “confusion of forms, colors, and noises” and asked himself: is my design good design? In doing so, he came up with his celebrated Ten Principles of Good Design sometimes referred as the ‘Ten commandments’. While they originally focused on product design, the principles are also applicable to how we communication, the information we produce and the technology we use to distribute this information.
Good Design (and Communication) is…
- Is innovative – The possibilities for progression are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for original designs. But imaginative design always develops in tandem with improving technology, and can never be an end in itself.
- Makes a product useful – A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic criteria. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could detract from it.
- Is aesthetic – The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
- Makes a product understandable – It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.
- Is unobtrusive – Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
- Is honest – It does not make a product appear more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
- Is long-lasting – It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.
- Is thorough down to the last detail – Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
- Is environmentally friendly – Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
- Is as little design as possible – Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.
How we communicate, the tools we use to do this and good design will be increasingly (if not already are) connected. This Wired article “Why a New Golden Age for UI Design Is Around the Corner” makes a good point about how user-interface or experiential designers are weaving the digital world into our everyday lives so seamlessly that we don’t even notice… Are you scared or prepared?