Good Design has been a term used since the 1930s when designers and architects began pushing the boundaries of what design could look like after World War II. Spurred on by multiple factors, one of the biggest influences during that time was the innovative designs and teachings of the German art and design school known as Bauhaus.
Even though Bauhaus taught the concepts of Good Design (such as “form follows function”), it wasn’t until the late 1970s that a German Industrial Designer, Dieter Rams, made the concept more tangible. Seeing an “Impenetrable confusion of forms, colors, and noises”2 around him, Rams started to wonder if his designs were adding to this array of chaos and asked the hard question: “Is my design good design?”
“Less, but Better.” – Dieter Rams
In his search for an answer, Dieter Rams created 10 Principles of Good Design. Rams found that Good Design is innovative, useful, aesthetic, understandable, unobtrusive, honest, long-lasting, thorough, environmentally friendly, and as little design as possible. In short, Good Design is “less but better.”2
1. Good Design is Innovative
Design doesn’t just exist between pen and paper or any creative medium; design is found in everything. Because of this, design exists alongside innovative technologies across all industries. For something to be considered a Good Design, it must be up to date with the current technological advancements and the needs of its users. These advancements not only help the design stay relevant but can also inspire aspects of the design that might have been impossible before.
2. Good Design is Useful
Products are bought to satisfy the needs of the user. This doesn’t just have to be functional, it can be psychological and aesthetic needs as well. A Good Design is one that “optimizes usefulness and ignores anything that doesn’t serve the purpose or works against it”2. In other words, there is no unnecessary “fluff” physically or psychologically; there is nothing extra that could take away from the usefulness of the design.
With functionality being a central part of the design, Good Designs naturally tend to be more minimalist as a whole. This not only helps with aesthetics but also challenges designers to evaluate what elements of a design are most important and remove anything that gets in the way of that.
3. Good Design is Aesthetic
The design of objects in user’s day-to-day lives has a significant impact on their psychology and well-being. Objects that are pleasing to look at evoke a sense of calm and happiness. Using a well-designed product will evoke joy and curiosity. Good Designs also expend less mental energy to operate and look at. For instance, something that sticks out within a space draws the user’s eye and causes mental strain.
Rams believed that beauty is found in simplicity and clarity. When a user interacts with a product, the aesthetics add to the pleasure of using the product. Conversely, bad aesthetics can cause an otherwise well-functioning product to be a less enjoyable experience since it’s fine to use but a pain to look at. In addition to this, truly good designs will have a timelessness to them. Remaining immune to the short-term allure of trends, these designs will remain appealing across generations.
4. Good Design is Understandable
When a design reaches the user, the creator of the design won’t be able to stand over them to explain how they intended for the design to be used. Proper instructions for any product are helpful, but the truly amazing designs require little to no direction for a user to understand its function from simply interacting with it.
For the best products, designed interiors, or programs, Good Design is self-explanatory. The best products offer no confusion about their capabilities and limits. The best interiors suggest “affordances” for users to instinctively know how to interact within the space and what activities the space would support (theory of affordances). And the best programs offer an interface that is easy to navigate. Any chance for confusion is minimized, improved, or eliminated.
5. Good Design is Unobtrusive
In addition to products being designed around functionality, a Good Design intentionally doesn’t draw unnecessary attention to itself. It blends into the background. This is due to the simplicity of the design, functioning as intended, allowing for little mental energy to use it, and the product immediately feeling like it “belongs” in the user’s life.
When brought into a user’s home, a Good Design’s minimalist nature will allow plenty of room for the user to express their style within the space. As opposed to the product immediately catching someone’s eye when looking around the room. The goal is for it to serve its purpose without negatively impacting the space in any way. There are certain instances when the design of an entire space or an entire design is purposely excentric. Within those instances, Good Design happens when every excentric element fits together harmoniously.
6. Good Design is Honest
A product considered a Good Design is truthful and trustworthy about what it claims to do. There is no manipulation or attempt to mislead the user into believing the product offers some benefit when it cannot. In addition, the design should be up-front about any limitations and set realistic expectations. Making grandiose claims not only negatively impacts the user, but also looks bad on the designer and/or company in the long run.
Transparency about materials, working conditions, and impact on the environment helps build credibility, increasing the likelihood of repeat customers. Additionally, a Good Design should be intuitive such that there are no hidden features, unexpected behaviors, or paywalls for basic features that the company claimed to provide access to with a free version. An honest design is a Good Design because it shows respect towards the user.
7. Good Design is Long-lasting
When products in today’s society are designed to be thrown away, the quickest way to elevate a design is to make it durable. Products that are designed to last have good craftsmanship, are resistant to daily wear and tear, and are made from high-quality materials.
A long-lasting product should be designed free from trends, relying on timeless aesthetics that allow it to stay relevant throughout generations. Additionally, a long-lasting product can be easily repaired with replaceable parts and intuitive mechanics. Long-lasting products are vital for reducing hyper-consumerism, benefitting the environment and the well-being of users.
8. Good Design is Thorough
The best products and designs are the ones that think of every little detail, down to the smallest elements or things most designs don’t include at all. Rams believed that “Everything interacts and is dependent on other things”2, therefore, nothing within the design should be left to chance.
This shows a level of respect for the user that other designs can’t achieve. It shows that the designer was able to anticipate the user’s needs and put themselves in the user’s shoes. It serves the designer in the long run by anticipating and addressing any potential issues before they arise, resulting in more customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
9. Good Design is Environmentally Friendly
One thing every product in the world has in common is that it took resources to make. Customers often don’t think about the true life-cycle cost of a product when buying it, thus making it the responsibility of the designer to design products with the environment in mind.
The lifecycle of a product is the total impact it has from its extraction as raw materials, its manufacturing process, the length of time it can stay in a user’s life, and its ultimate end of life. Can a product make as little impact on the Earth as possible, stay in use for the longest amount of time, and be mostly if not 100% reusable from its various elements? That is the ultimate question. Mother nature is the ultimate example of Good Design, learn from it and design products as if they are a part of an ecosystem; because they are.
10. Good Design is as Little Design as Possible
Rams believed that the essence of Good Design is “Less, but better.”2 The designs that can stand the test of time are the ones that are simple in form and function, avoid unnecessary decorations or features that negatively impact the product’s purpose, and overall have a level of restraint that keeps them away from the downfall of trends.
When a product is brought back to simplicity, the elements and principles of design can shine through, allowing users to be drawn into the use of lines, shapes, and colors. The psychology of design often shows that the simplest of forms offer the greatest happiness for people. And as Rams stated, “You cannot understand Good Design if you do not understand people.”1
Why These Concepts Matter
With these concepts, Dieter Rams was able to capture the essence of Good Design, helping people to identify it and for designers to create it more easily. Design is found in everything and therefore these principles can be applied to all industries and products.
While personal preference plays a role in how a user enjoys interacting with a product, there a fundamental psychological theories that prove there is such a thing as Good Design and that humans react more positively to it. Therefore it is in the best interest of designers to design with intention, respect, and purpose for their creations.
Sources:
- “What Is Good Design?” The Interaction Design Foundation, Interaction Design Foundation, 6 Dec. 2024, www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/good-design.
- “The Power of Good Design. Dieter Rams’s Ideology, Engrained within Vitsœ.” Vitsoe Design Dieter Rams, Vitsoe, https://www.vitsoe.com/us/about/good-design?
