Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. design is how it works
Steve Jobs, Apple.
Design is the most important way in which we communicate with our customers. Where does your design inspiration come from?
Apple’s iconic designs have been influenced by the philosophy of German industrial designer Dieter Rams.
Rams is famous for his groundbreaking innovative designs at Braun.
In 1956 he was part of a team that helped disrupt the radiogramophone market. Back then record players and radios looked like antique pieces of furniture until Rams designed the SK4 record player, nicknamed Snow Whites’s Coffin because of its clear plastic lid.
Products designed by Dieter Rams are coherent and effortless. At a glance you know how to use them, There’s no ambiguity. Function and purpose are clear.
In the ’70s Rams described the design world as,
An impenetrable confusion of forms, colors and noise.
Aware that he was a contributor to all this, he was forced to ask himself,
Is my design good design?
Good design is subjective. However, Rams attempted to answer his own question by designing the 10 Principles of Good design.
Good design is innovative
Good design makes a product useful
Good design is aesthetic
Good design makes a product understandable
Good design is unobtrusive
Good design is honest
Good design is long-lasting
Good design is thorough down to the last detail
Good design is environmentally-friendly
Good design is as little design as possible
These principles still inspire designers today.
Can you see how some of these principles can be applied to web design?