Dieter Rams, the influential German industrial designer, is celebrated for his "less but better" approach to design. His work at Braun and Vitsoe has impacted the look and function of countless consumer products. Rams' design aesthetics, characterized by simplicity, honesty, and restraint, have inspired designers worldwide. This article delves into Rams' ten principles of good design, exploring their meaning, implications, and relevance in the modern world.
Who is Dieter Rams?
Dieter Rams is one of the most iconic modern designers. He developed the concept of functionality, simplicity, and Braun styles, setting the tone for innovation and functional design. According to Rams, design is more than the art of making a product beautiful. If the final product is aesthetic but useless, it fails to fulfill its intended purpose.
Rams became a protégé of the Ulm School of Design (successor to the Bauhaus) luminaries Hans Gugelot, Fritz Eichler and Otl Aicher.
As an industrial designer at Braun, Dieter Rams followed the philosophy of "less is more." This approach generated timeless, quality products with an international reputation. The goal of his work was clarity of form, ease of use, and choice of material.
The Genesis of the 10 Principles
In the late 1970s, Dieter Rams became increasingly concerned with the state of the world around him, which he described as "an impenetrable confusion of forms, colors, and noises." Aware that he was contributing to this world, he questioned whether his design was truly "good design." To answer this question, he developed ten principles that encapsulated his vision of good design.
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According to Dieter Rams, good design encompasses the following:
- Innovative
- Useful
- Aesthetic
- Understandable
- Unobtrusive
- Honest
- Long-lasting
- Thorough down to the last detail
- Environmentally friendly
- As little design as possible
These principles have become iconic and have inspired designers across the world.
The 10 Principles in Detail
1. Good Design is Innovative
The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
Designers should reflect novelty and innovation in their products. Since they have constant access to developing technology, there’s no excuse not to innovate.
Looking at this principle, some find the implication that good design must be tied to technological innovation to be an extremely narrow understanding of good design.
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From a simple definition it is clear good design is not necessarily innovative. Often we specifically do not want to introduce new ideas or ways of doing something. Let us imagine we are working on the design of a signage system for a large building. It is not necessary to introduce new ideas or ways of doing this in order to achieve a well-designed outcome. Good design in this context is often not innovative: it follows tried and tested practices and principles, which we know work when creating a signage system.
Good design doesn’t need technological advances, to change the world or stand out as strikingly beautiful. And it probably won’t leave you wondering how you lived without it. Good design is often not noticed at all, precisely because it is good design.
The problem with Rams’ first principle is that he has confused and collapsed two things into one: good design and innovative design are not the the same thing, and one does not necessarily follow the other.
2. Good Design Makes a Product Useful
A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
This principle asserts that a product should have a specific function. Therefore, designers should eliminate anything that limits functionality. Some might argue this rule set the precedent of what we know as usability with modern technology and interfaces.
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The most immediate issue that occurs to some with this principle is the focus on ‘product’, and highlights an issue for all Rams’ principles. Good design is not always put to the service of products. Rams is famous for, and spent most of his career, as a product designer of consumer goods. As such, his principles should be understood within his field of experience and we should be wary of extrapolating them as universal principles that will cross all fields of the vastly varied landscape of design.
The principle presumes we will know beforehand exactly how the outcome of our design will be used. When we design a toaster or a radio we know what its intended use is, but in other design contexts it may be limiting to try and conceive of a specific intended use. For example, in the design of digital products we may design in a way that allows for a number different uses and acknowledge there may be a number of totally unexpected uses as well as those intended. We may then observe the most common uses and take those findings to hone the product in that particular direction. In the digital space the relationship between designer and user is more symbiotic, where the direction and usefulness of a product is in flux and determined in a continuous feedback loop between creator and user.
3. Good Design is Aesthetic
The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
When we talk of aesthetics we open a philosophical can of worms and we must immediately question whether it’s even possible to agree an objective measure or definition of beauty. But even without entering this debate we can see that the purpose of good design is often not concerned with beauty; in the sense that someone perceiving the result of a design would be compelled to appreciate its beauty.
Sometimes referred to as the ‘invisible art’, it is a design practice whose primary concern is to clearly convey the content and meaning of the type, so that it’s easy to read. The objective is not for the reader to appreciate the beauty of the typography. While certain fonts may be designed with aesthetics front and centre in the design process, the every day typefaces that we see across content online and in print are mainly concerned with the legibility of individual characters and the readability of the type across words and sentences. It could be argued that this results in a beautiful type design, but even within the type design community there is no agreement on aesthetics.
Regardless of debates on aesthetics and beauty, it is clear that the aesthetic quality of a design is not integral to its usefulness. Love it or hate it, Helvetica is highly legible and readable, and as such is incredibly useful for many different uses. Its utility derives in large part precisely because most people do not even consider its beauty (or lack of) - they simply read the words and are left to focus on the meaning of their message.
The type of minimalist design approach Rams advocates is a very western, 20th-century approach to design. To some designers Rams’ products are sleek, elegant, beautiful; but to others they may appear bland and forgettable. What ‘affects our person and well-being’ aesthetically is deeply subjective and formed in large part on social and cultural factors. It’s no coincidence that as the design community has become globalised, younger voices from all over the world are shifting and challenging the established order.
4. Good Design Makes a Product Understandable
It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.
A good design should be self-explanatory and use the user's intuition. It should clarify how a product functions and provide basic instructions. However, excessive instructions may be tiresome for the user to follow. In other words, “don’t make me think,” much like Steven Krug’s now famous book preaches to today’s UX designers.
As artificial intelligence gains momentum and becomes an integral part of society, not only does this make things a little easier because products today can speak for themselves, but it too creates challenges in itself. It opens a Pandora’s Box because what do we do when things go awry? As technology advances and products begin having the capability to think for themselves, this only proves how important it is to design in order to ensure a sense of understanding governing a products functionality and capability is driven throughout its design process.
5. Good Design 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.
A vital aspect of a good design is to help a user perform a task, providing clear actions.
Products should take the most basic form in order to allow users to exercise their own preferences and self-expression. After all, products are like tools that help us to better ourselves and the lives we live. In good design, never over complicate what could otherwise be simple.
6. Good Design is Honest
It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
Rams believed a good design should be reliable and durable for its intended purpose. Designers are responsible for improving user experience and delivering on their promises. Therefore, actions shouldn’t be unambiguous. Instead, they should be honest about what they deliver to the customer.
Congruently, some of Jakob Nielsen's ten general principles capture the essence of this principle:
- Visibility of system status
- Match between the system and the real world
- User control and freedom
- Error prevention
- Flexibility and efficiency of use
- Providing ways to recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
These all play into keeping the digital design honest to user expectations and communicating that effectively.
7. Good Design 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.
A good design never loses its relevance, so it never appears antiquated. Therefore, rather than following fashionable trends, a good design should strive to remain timeless. Digital design has a much harder correlation to this specific principle, more often focusing on iterations being a positive aspect to keep up with the rapid pace of technology.
8. Good Design 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 user.
In design, every little detail matters. Details such as accuracy, images, and text should impress and assist the user in everything they do. Designers’ attention to detail can make the product useful, honest, and timeless. We say “pixel perfect” in the digital space to ensure every detail serves our user base.
A design must be comprehensible in every respect, which means fretting over as many details as you can to ensure the design will be usable and functional for the people it’s intended for.
9. Good Design 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.
A good design should contribute to environmental preservation. Dieter Rams strived to design products that contributed toward protecting the environment. That’s a principle we should really embrace today. Technology could significantly affect how we design and iterate while staying environmentally friendly.
Sustainability and thinking about preserving our environment is at the heart of any good design.
10. Good Design 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.
A good design won’t have irrelevant details. Rams championed clean and straightforward designs, believing that less is more. An analysis of his works reveals the concept of minimalism, where products only have essential features. We can still see minimalistic elements in material design, showing its timelessness.
My goal is to omit everything superfluous so that the essential is shown to best possible advantage.
Dieter Rams' Impact on Design Today
Although Rams created his principles with physical products in mind, they remain relevant to other design fields. Rams created a new form of timeless design that avoids fashion trends. Some of his original designs are still in production, like the 606 Universal Shelving System from 1960. His timeless designs have beaten obsolescence and trends.
In addition, Rams' design principles have been influential to brands. Apple’s designer Jonathan Ive created iPhones, iPad, and iPhones that mirror Rams’ minimalistic style.