Jasper McChesney
Jul 21, 2017 · 1 min read

What I see here are six ways design can be good. I see nothing like six ways of “identifying” good design; no methods or process for doing so. That’s probably an impossible promise your headline made, so no wonder you didn’t deliver.

Click-bait headline aside, your six “ways” are superficially obvious, but much less airtight on inspection. They are themselves full of subjectivity. Some are so vague that they amount to “good design is good” from a different angle. Is the tone appropriate for the brand? I don’t know, what method would tell me? Many of these also work against each other in a project. If my design is effective — and accomplishes my client’s goals — by means of following the fads of the time, it will hardly be timeless. Is it no longer good? And finally, why should good design always be frictionless? Have you heard of punk or grunge? Are these things not to be noticed? Do they make reading easier? Are they “appealing”? No, that is not their purpose.

It is not bad to list these six things as areas of design to think about, but you have badly over-promised I think.

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Jasper McChesney

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Designer of information, graphics, and sometimes games.