Most people who have worked with me up to this point have probably noticed that I have a strong urge to think about solving problems using Design methods and methodologies. This is not accidental. In my heart of hearts, I believe that the work I do each day will help make the world a better place…not through the success of particular technologies or companies, but through human interactions aided by supportive tools. The only way this will happen is with a healthy dose of good Design. With this in mind, I’d like to pass on the most important thing I learned in my post-graduate education: The Seven Themes of Good Design.
I think about these themes often, and am indebted to a great educator, mentor and friend for teaching me these oft-forgotten ideas.
Without further ado, Good Design is all of the following:
- Is user-centered, not machine-centered – That’s right folks. The name of the game is people, not machines. It’s about helping people to do what they would likely do anyway, only to help them do it better. And also to allow people to do things they never dreamed possible. Either way, good design is about people, not the tools that get them there.
- Employs the computer as a transparent medium – Ideally, a person never even notices the computer, it just fades into their normal flow. Every Interaction Designer should know that if a user makes a remark about the UI, then the designer has failed in some way.
- Creates computer imaginative interactions – Good design takes full advantage of the medium upon which it is built. In our era of technology, we should be using the computer in ways that people only a few years ago would never have dreamed of, not just the next logical way. Desktop computing? Probably not for long. Ubiquitous computing? Coming sooner than you think.
- Provides for ease of learning – A well designed tool is easy to learn. It may be complex, but initial use should be possible without a training course. This cannot be understated.
- Entails continual redesign – A good design is never “done.” As is recognized in the agile development community, software tools continually evolve, because people and their environments are ever-changing. Designers constantly see room for improvement in their prior work.
- Is more craft than art – Design isn’t some mystical, magical world. It can be learned and taught, but doing so requires a lot of work of both teacher and student. Some people are simply gifted artists at birth. Most great designers have honed their skills over time.
- Always involves tradeoffs – There will always be something that would make a design better, but could not be included because of a particular constraint. Always.
- *
And there you have it. The Seven Themes of Good Design. Credit goes to Marty Siegel. The most influential lesson I’ve received in my professional career, and the basis of my Design Philosophy.
* There is an eighth theme of good Design, I’ll have you know. That one is a bit of a secret, though. If you’re interested in learning about the most important theme, you’ll have to ask me about it. I’ll be glad to share, but the only way to do it is face to face.
5 responses to “The Themes of Good Design”
Great post. So, now i’m curious about the eighth theme. Can you tell me?
Anyway, not quite sure about what do you meant with face to face.
Loved your blog (design).
Cheers.
Nice post.
As way of an analogy for point 2, I was a sound engineer for several years and one point that I tried to drive home to other sound engineers is the goal of doing live sound was to never be noticed. A concert is a mix of the skill of the artists performing and the skill of the audio engineer. It is the sound guy’s job to ensure that only the skill of the artist is ever noticed. If they are noticed, then they screwed up somehow and have failed.
As you say, both good design and good sound guys should be completely transparent to the user or listener.
I would add something to point 4 though that along with being easy to learn, it should also be easy to remember (i.e., users should never have to relearn the design).
I would argue with point 5 that good design entails continual redesign though. My argument, or caution, comes the point that continual redesign needs to be always focused on removing things and not adding things to the design. In other words, what can be removed or reduced or restructured that will allow the design to meet the other 7 goals.
It is too easy to be constantly redesigning something by simply adding elements to it. This will result in the design violating the other rules and will create something that people cannot use.
In martial arts and sports there is an idea that perfection is not achieved by figuring out what needs to be added, but by removing everything that does not pertain directly to the objective. This is also true in design.
So to add my own rule of design:
“You know you’ve achieved perfection in design, Not when you have nothing more to add, But when you have nothing more to take away.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery
This is follow closely by “just because you can doesn’t mean you should!”
knowlogist – Sorry, I can only divulge the 8th theme if you ask me in person. 🙁
Chris – All great points. I love the Antoine de Saint-Exupery quote…I had heard it before, but never knew who said it. And I think it calls upon one of the flaws of Agile methods like XP, which assume that improving a product simply involves adding features. In fact, many times it is about taking them away.
Josh, I remember the Antoine quote as being on the Intro to Informatics class – the handouts that Marty gave us. Good times.
I am an informatics student here at aIU and I am extremely interested in hearing this 8th theme of good design. Do you happen to still be around IU at all? I would love to meet up and hear about it and what you have to say.