Dieter Rams, a legendary German industrial designer, served as the chief designer at Braun for many years and left an indelible mark on the world of product design. His philosophy, characterized by elegant, functional, and simplistic designs, has influenced generations of designers. Rams' designs at Braun are widely recognized and his "Ten Principles of Good Design" have become mandatory learning in industrial design courses around the world. This article delves into these principles, exploring their origins, meanings, and enduring relevance.
Origins of the 10 Principles
In the 1970s, Dieter Rams became increasingly concerned about the growing environmental problems and the "impenetrable confusion of forms, colours, and noises" in the world. This led him to question whether his own designs were contributing to the problem. He realized that his designs involved heavy usage of injected molded plastics. As a result, he developed his ten principles of good design by constantly questioning himself: "Are we producing something that is adding value to the planet?" These principles are not mere rules but rather an attitude and behavior that designers should adopt. Rams himself stated that these principles should be updated in the phase of time and requirements.
The 10 Principles Explained
Rams' principles offer a holistic approach to design, applicable across various design disciplines. They emphasize simplicity, functionality, and responsibility. Let's examine each principle in detail:
1. Good Design is Innovative
"Design always comes about in connection with innovative technology. How can design be good if the technology is not on the same level?"
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.
Read also: Good Design According to Dieter Rams
The Takeaway: There is no excuse not to innovate. Designers have constant access to developing technology and must use it to solve real-world problems, not just create gadgetry. As designers, we should definitely know the people we are designing for. Or anticipate what they would like. Modern technology is constantly evolving, and this brings us countless opportunities for its advancement through innovative design. For designers in the past and even more so for designers now, there is no excusable reason to not keep innovating and improving.
2. Good Design Makes a Product Useful
"Good design optimizes usefulness and ignores anything that doesn’t serve the purpose or works against it."
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.
The Takeaway: Functionality is paramount. A product should build trust with the user by solving the purpose it was intended for, without adding to any uncertainty. It must not further add to the uncertainty that the users already possess. Design must serve rather than dominate people. The product should have a function, and a specific function. And that function includes objective and subjective outcomes (such as aesthetic and psychological satisfaction.) Anything that doesn’t directly or indirectly aid a user in attaining their goals through that functionality should be eliminated.
3. Good Design is Aesthetic
"Objects you use daily significantly shape your personal surroundings and your sense of well being. Only something that is well-made can be beautiful."
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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.
The Takeaway: Looks matter. Aesthetics is a by-product of a well-thought and well-crafted design. Form should always follow function, but it shouldn’t be forgotten - it should follow. Aesthetics plays a crucial role in our identities, self-perceptions, and the psychological nature of things. We should be concerned with the impact that aesthetics have on a user and delight them with the visual effect of your product. Good design creates ripples beyond the product.
4. Good Design Makes a Product Understandable
"It makes it easy to understand the structure of the product. Even more, it can make the product “talk”. Ideally, it explains itself best."
It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.
The Takeaway: Design is all about the experience you want to deliver. The key to connecting all the components and factors of a product together lies in the context. This is paramount in product design. It is acceptable that there are products that are going to require documentation or at least basic explanatory content to use due to inherent complexity, but if a product requires inordinate instruction to be usable, somethings wrong. To create something that people will love and want to interact with, we must understand people, technology, culture, and ultimately human emotions. By asking ourselves these types of questions, we can design things that speak to people and don’t need manuals to explain what they’re for.
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5. Good Design is Unobtrusive
"Products that serve a purpose have the characteristics of a tool. Their design should be neutral and leave room for the user’s self expression."
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.
The Takeaway: Crafting simple, perfect, and stripping down to the essentials is what, a designer should aim for while creating products. Don’t design a product around yourself. Further, don’t design your product around a projection of what you expect or even want your user to be. Create a product that gets out of the way of the user and allows them to do what they want to do, while guiding them into a productive, and delightful method of doing it. The product should be an extension of the person. The very best products are the ones that allow the consumer to do exactly what they want to do without much restriction, all the while assisting them to do their tasks productively and joyfully.
6. Good Design is Honest
"Honest means not trying to make a product look more innovative, powerful, or more valuable than it really is."
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.
The Takeaway: A product communicates with customers in the same way that people communicate with one another. We should be honest with our users about what we’re delivering to them. Anything built on a foundation of dishonesty doesn’t last very long, whether it’s a product or life in general. However we make a promise, whether that promise is presented through a visual affordance, iconography, or even through marketing, we need to make sure we follow through on it. So, having a sense of purpose gives the product away to marry design and marketing.
7. Good Design is Long-Lasting
"In contrast to fashionable design, it lasts many years even in our current throwaway society."
It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years - even in today’s throwaway society.
The Takeaway: Designing for the sake of fashion is dangerous and generally unhelpful. The quality of having a restrained aesthetic and function that is as optimized as possible leads to long utilization cycles. When an object of design is long-lasting, it has two concurrent effects on us: first, we gain respect for its stability and persistence. It becomes like an old friend, something we can count on like a sturdy pair of denim, a hardcover book- all of these impress upon us a lasting sense of security and a pleasant stubbornness. As designers, we should aim to contribute a larger moral imperative: to enrich human life in a way that encourages holding on to things rather than constantly seeking the novel or the spectacular.
8. Good Design is Thorough Down to the Last Detail
"Nothing should be arbitrary or left to chance. Thoroughness and precision are expressions of respect for the user."
Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the user.
The Takeaway: This is where good designers are separated from excellent designers. Every input, every image and block of text, every workflow should be thoroughly thought out to aid the user in their endeavors. As a designer, we should build something that we would love to use ourselves.
9. Good Design is Environmentally Friendly
"Design makes an important contribution to preserving the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution."
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.
The Takeaway: Climate change is a defining issue of our time. In the digital realm, we don’t have quite as much effect upon our physical environment as some other industries might. However, we still should be sensitive to our digital and logical environment. Ensuring that your product works with right-to-left languages, for instance, is often important for international products. Ideally, really good design should not become a fuel for consumption which brings us nothing but irreparable resource problems and environmental destruction. Instead, we can come up with designs that consume less energy and are environmentally friendly. Hence, designing to leave the planet better than we found it.
10. Good Design is as Little as Possible
"Back to simplicity. Back to purity. Less, But better."
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.
The Takeaway: This sums up a lot of design principles into one. The beauty of designing less is that it frees you to focus your energy and effort on fewer things that need your input. Design should always be intentional, never just filigree. Anything that doesn’t serve the user should be eliminated. Again, however, design can serve a user either directly or indirectly - visual design can indirectly serve the user just as much as an excellent feature set can directly serve a user. We can learn from the Japanese philosophy of Kanketsu, which translates to “Simplicity,” which emphasizes the value of prudence and self-restraint and tells us that: “this is enough” and for something to be enough, it needs to serve its purpose. Therefore, the idea behind “Less, but better” is not about simplicity for the sake of simplicity or creating minimalistic white-colored products, it’s about simplicity as a result of removing unnecessary additions.
Rams' Advice to Young Designers
In the documentary "Rams", Dieter Rams advises young designers to:
- Keep your eyes wide open when you walk through the city or a room. (Keep Observing🔭)
- And don’t believe everything the teachers tell you, because it’s not all correct. (Keep Questioning🤔)
tags: #dieter #rams #speaker #design #principles