Good design is like a flowing river. It moves. It spans time. It changes. It adapts. It feeds others.
We live in an age where one could be on a platform like YouTube uploading your weekly webisode and later drive to dinner in a classic car like a 1969 Corvette. Both the YouTube platform and the Corvette are designed and we can appreciate both.
As an aside, I owned a 2001 Mustang Bullitt and cried when I sold it, but I digress.
So YouTube and a ’69 Corvette are different designs from different periods in time, yet good design. As a side note, there are designers out there that want us to live in the future in everything from our tooth brush to the cars we drive and chair we sit in. I think that’s impractical. Visiting archetypes is an important part of design.
Good design isn’t so much tied to time periods to me though obviously one couldn’t find an iPad in the time of Leonardo da Vinci, yet his sketches are completely amazing and almost futurist. However, think to yourself that the math behind beauty was created long ago and used to this very moment i.e. golden section.
There is a pattern to beauty. Though in the case of designers, some designers are just comparatively better than others are. Yet, all designers play a part in good design.
Good design attributes:
- Good design is practical. It’s not overly intent on creating something just for the sake of itself. It’s unselfish.
- Good design contributes. Design gives something back. Good design is a tool for good to whatever degree.
- Good design is strong. So it considers the environment in which it lives. If you are designing an OS yet forget to scenario the possible security issues that may occur then your design is not worth publishing. Think about cradle to cradle.
- It’s beautiful. Good design is just so beautiful. Look at your favorite designs and there is a satisfaction transfer.
- Good design is remarkable. It can be a mobile phone or the OS that runs the phone. It can be a classic car that takes you to dinner. It can be a data architecture that insures your privacy or the UI that helps you through the checkout process.
People know design now (for the most part) and that is different from the past. Users don’t need to be affluent to know if something is easy to use. Should good design be a value added proposition commercially? I do not know. But, I do know that it always wins out. When design is everything from the platform to the interface to the information architecture it has to be good design to win in the long run.
The thing is design is everywhere. As designers we should make sure every design leaves a mark, not for it’s own sake, but for that of what’s down river and for the benefit of others.
Simon is a Product Designer and Front End Dev with over 20 years of experience. He started as a graphic designer and illustrator coding his first website in 1996. He has worked with brands like Publix, Microsoft, and Discovery Channel.
