Some quotes about good design from a Germany designer Dieter Rams in documentary "Objectified":
- Good design should be innovative
- Good design should make a product useful
- Good design is aesthetic design
- Good design will make a product understandable
- Good design is honest
- Good design is unobtrusive
- Good design is long-lived
- Good design is consistent in every detail
- Good design is environmentally friendly
- Good design is as little design as possible
This brings up a question -- what is the most important factor about good design, To lots of people, the most important is about simplicity, i.e, Good design is as little design as possible. That does not mean we should not design too much, but instead we should keep the designed product as simple as possible. The design process may be very complex, but the final product should be very simple.
We take some successful IT products as example to illustrate the importance of simple design.
Many people are attracted by Apple products from iPhone, iPad to iMac. We can find that all apple products look just very simple, not only its hardware but also its software. Steve Jobs wanted his products to be simple above all else. Some hardware features of all Apple products are -- simple color, no too many peripherals and thin. The simplicity philosophy shared by Apple is: A mental model of a task is typically streamlined and focused on the fundamental components of the task. Although there may be myriad optional details associated with a given task, the basic components should not have to compete with the details for the user’s attention.
In the iTunes application, for example, the basic task components of playing songs, selecting playlists, and searching are prominently featured. However, these are supplemented by easily accessible menu items and controls that perform additional tasks, such as ejecting a disk, shuffling a playlist, and displaying song artwork.
Also, the famous operating system UNIX also emphasizes simplicity in its design. Simplicity is the fundamental principle of UNIX Philosophy. Design for simplicity; add complexity only where you must,
Ken Thompson developed UNIX in the 1960s to be a small-but-capable operating system. Too often, new features are added to old programs and systems which create havoc for the end user and compatibility issues to boot. The thinking is that rewriting a program for a new application will save time and effort in the long run and limit the size of programming needed to adjust an older system. Think outside of the box while not breaking it. Keep the code simple and design it to do one thing very well.
To keep with the simple design elements of the philosophy of UNIX, input and output streams should be in text format, as this is a universal interface: all programs interpret strings of text, so keeping text as the input and output keeps the program small while it is still usable. Don't be afraid to develop new tools and discard them if they do not work. Learning is a key component of this system. By trying new applications of coding, the end user will find the simplest programming to perform the desired task. Do not let the time it will take to program stand in the way of developing the tools needed.
In addition, the latest Microsoft's Metro design also advocates simplicity. These Metro design principles are based on the Swiss Style, defined by simplicity and the idea of “form follows function.” Metro places an emphasis on typography, clean lines, structured grids, solid color and content, and layout as opposed to heavy graphics and gradients. While designs focusing on grids and colored boxes fit squarely within the Metro design principles, there is still plenty of room to explore creative executions. Yes, Metro uses colored blocks, but in execution, designers can do so much more. And there is a heavy emphasis on the clean organization of content and deliberate user flows to ensure that users can easily find the information that they need.
Keep it simple doesn't mean less functions but necessary functions, it means that before design, we spend time on thinking what people really need but not what we can do. The focus is people's needs. I think this is the first thing designers should understand when they start to design any product.
References
[1].http://www.meetingtomorrow.com/cms-category/unix-programming
[2].http://siliconangle.com/blog/2012/05/08/checking-in-with-metro-lessons-in-rebranding-for-windows-8/
