What is a 'good design'?

What is a ‘good design’?

There is not one answer to this as it is very subjective and the ideals are always changing. William Morris was a famous lecturer during the late 1800s. He believed that a good design had to be useful and beautiful which led to numerous debates. This led to other opinions where a good design is seen as having a combination of qualities, but what these qualities are, are in correspondent with the time period they are in. Their relative importance and how they respond to each other is continuously changing. Function and efficiency is also an important factor. They must be useful in practice and easy to operate. Many products are over complicated, for example mobile phones and their many apps and features. How can this be a good design if it is not simple to use and do what its built for without having to search for ages? It does not matter if products have other merits if they do not fulfill their purpose properly.

However, it is possible for a design to satisfy as a good design even though it fails on other aspects. A good example is the Google logo. It looks infant-like with its wonky writing and bold colours – slightly cringey. But it works because it is fun and interesting. Google also produce ‘doodles’ on some days where there, for example an event, birthday or a remembrance. These doodles are something new to look at which adds a sense of curiosity. It gives the company a bit of ‘livelihood’ and stopping it being too serious, it is linked with the real world. Alice Rawsthorn wrote ‘we have become so expert at decoding visual symbols like logos that the more sophisticated they seem, the deeper our suspicions are likely to be.’ Sometimes, it is not enough for a design to just be ‘useful’. An example is with book covers where they shouldn’t just protect the book, but also give a sense of what is written inside.

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The Google Logo

A good design is often said to have appealing aesthetics. But is this always true because sometimes the unappealing designs stand out and catch our attention the most. Beauty over the years has become less important. The post-it note is a prime example with it’s urine coloured yellow. But because it is so useful it succeeds in the design industry. Beauty is linked with harmony and balance, also disputing a good design as being beautiful is shown by Hella Jongerius where she adds small quirky details, such as a single button, to her products. She tricks us into associating them with antiques or heirlooms which adds an emotional impact.

Visual technology is making it harder to come to a conclusion on what good design is. the pixelated images on screens changes the way we see the world. A mountain rage would look different on a screen to if you were viewing it in real life. But the design softwares do allow for precision small details which would be hard to create freehand. It has gone to the extent now that peoples view on some designs changes on whether it is digitally made or by hand, even without us realising we have made a like or dislike judgement. It is hard to differentiate reality from the virtual world.

When considering a good design it is also important to take into consideration its environmental and ethical impacts. A design feature must be honest in what it is trying to put across. BP are a prime example of not doing this where they have links with damaging the environment, yet their logo is of nature – a sunflower. People have views on working with companies that are not true to their world and it is important in the design world to research before coming involved in something as it might be against your ethical beliefs or safety. This is known as integrity.

In today’s seminar with Eve we discussed what a good design was. We split up into groups and walked around several buildings and looked at key aspects – interiors, exteriors, entrances, furniture and signage. We were given the EMB and looked for disability access, how easy it was to find your way around, the colour schemes, its technological factors such as sensory lights to save energy, whether the doors had windows in so you can see if there is anyone on the other side and the amount of seating there was in the café. We came back and discussed what we had found with the other groups. As a designer you have to look at the smaller details that other people would not notice or consider.

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The EMB

 

References

Rawsthorn, A. (2013) Hello world: Where design meets life. London: Hamish Hamilton.