Curated by: Luigi Canali De Rossi
 


Thursday, August 23, 2007

Design Fundamentals: Joshua Porter's Five Principles To Design By

Sponsored Links

I myself, more often than not, am involved in some design process or decision. No matter if we are looking at ways to improve monetization of one of my sites or at how to make it easier for you to publish video clips archives or at how to allow readers to browse several newsradars, it all comes down to making good design choices.

design-composition.jpg
Photo credit: Tracy Ebden and Logoboom - Montage by Robin Good

Problem is that our culture and educational institutions have often taught and instilled in us the idea that more is always better and that great design can be achieved by adding a good number of cool visual elements.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

But then again it all depends on what you define "design" to be.

To me "design" is really nothing more than the creation of something in the mind. The ability to conceive, plan, sketch out and create something for a specific use or experience.

To make this a successful process, one in which the final outcome is something that will make your tool or product easier to use, appreciate and utilize, your ability to look at the essence of your creation final purpose while gradually eliminating all that is unnecessary to achieve that goal effortlessly, is in many ways the highest expression of exercising "good design".

Nathan Shredoff gives a good definition of this:

"Design is a set of fields for problem-solving that uses user-centric approaches to understand user needs (as well as business, economic, environmental, social, and other requirements) to create successful solutions that solve real problems.

Design is often used as a process to create real change within a system or market.

Too often, Design is defined only as visual problem solving or communication because of the predominance of graphic designers."

If you are passionate about design, and about creating and sharing content, information and tools that other people will love using, you may want to consider checking out these five basic design principles that Joshua Porter of Bokardo has so clearly spelled out.

Intro by Robin Good



Five Principles to Design By

by Joshua Porter



1) Technology Serves Humans

human-technology-190.jpg

Too often people blame themselves for the shortcomings of technology. When their computer crashes, they say "I must have done something dumb".

If a web site is poorly designed, they say "I must be stupid. I can't find it". They might even turn to a book for Dummies to get it right.

This is horrible! People should never feel like a failure when using technology.

Like the customer, the user is always right. If software crashes, it is the software designer's fault. If someone can't find something on a web site, it is the web designer's fault. This doesn't mean that the designer has to hang their head in shame... they should see this as a learning opportunity!

The big difference between good and bad designers is how they handle people struggling with their design.

Technology serves humans. Humans do not serve technology.



2) Design is not Art

car_design_id3755661_size220.jpg

Art is about personal expression. It is about the life, the emotions, the thoughts and ideas of the artist.

It matters very little what observers do, their activity is not required, only their appreciation. The practice of Art doesn't require them. It is a necessary activity for the artist, and the artist alone.

Design, on the other hand, is about use. The designer needs someone to use (not only appreciate) what they create.

Design doesn't serve its purpose without people using it. Design helps solve human problems.

The highest accolade we can bestow on a design is not that it is beautiful, as we do in Art, but that it is well-used.

Unlike Art, Design is always contextual. It matters when a design was created because of the context of its use: what problem is it supposed to solve? And for whom? At what point in time? This is why design is so related to technology... and because technology changes so quickly, so must our designs.

A design that worked ten years ago might not even be worth considering today. History is littered with wonderful designs that are no longer necessary.

Great Art, on the other hand, is always in style. We appreciate Michelangelo's David even though we could recreate a million of them because it was the toil and expression of a single man. That will never fade.

Great Design is dependent upon the age in which it is made and the problem which it is meant to solve. But not Art. Art is timeless.

The Litmus test. When people enjoy Art, they say "I like that". When people enjoy Design, they say "That works well". This is not by accident.

Good Design is something that works well.



3) The Experience Belongs to the User

experience_id405993_size190.jpg

Designers do not create experiences, they create artifacts to experience. This subtle distinction makes all the difference, as it places the designer at the service of the user, and not the other way around. This doesn't rule out innovation, it doesn't prevent a designer to leap beyond what is accepted as state-of-the-art. It just means that the experience of a design doesn't happen simply because the designer says it does, it happens when a user actually reports it.

The ultimate experience is something that happens in the user, and it is theirs. They own it.



4) Great Design is Invisible

dish-design_id706620_size200.jpg

An interesting property of great design is that it is taken for granted. It works so well that we forget that creative effort was involved to bring it about.

Sometimes, like with the lowly spoon, the object is so simplistic that it seems obvious, and we disregard that at one point in history it wasn't. Other times, like with the automobile, the object is so sophisticated yet easy-to-use that we're blinded to the fact that millions and millions of human-hours went into getting it to this point. That's a shame... every great design has a rich history. And every design has behind it a designer or designers who tried to make the world a better place by solving some problem or another.

Bad design is obvious because it hurts to use. It is awkward, difficult, and complex.

In a great irony of the world, bad design is much easier to see than good design. It raps us on the head like a bully.

Because of its success, great design is often invisible.



5) Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication

ipod-nano-110.jpg

As Saint Exupery said, "In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."

Simplicity is treading a line: knowing what to keep and what to throw away... it comes across as magic when it works, because none of the complexity is transferred to users... only simplicity.

That is the highest achievement for a designer.



Original article by Joshua Porter published on March 5th, 2007 as "Five Principles to Design By" on Bokardo.



About the author

joshua_porter.jpg

Joshua Porter is the editor of Bokardo, a site about social web design. He is currently the Director of Web Development at User Interface Engineering, a behavioral research company based in North Andover, Massachusetts. There he conducts world-class research on how people actually use web sites and products. He also holds the annual User Interface Conference, one of the most successful design conferences in the industry.



Photo Credits
Hand scanner: Tyler Olson
Red car: Victor Zastol' Skiy
Kid at Playstation: Leah Anne Thompson
Dish: Ann Todolskaya
iPod: Apple

Joshua Porter -
Reference: Bokardo [ Read more ]
 
 
 
Readers' Comments    
blog comments powered by Disqus
 
posted by Robin Good on Thursday, August 23 2007, updated on Tuesday, May 5 2015


Search this site for more with 

  •  

     

     

     

     

    7862




     
     




    Curated by


    Publisher

    MasterNewMedia.org
    New media explorer
    Communication designer

     

    POP Newsletter

    Robin Good's Newsletter for Professional Online Publishers  

    Name:
    Email:

     

     
    Real Time Web Analytics