Design, Good design vs Bad design

6 min readSep 5, 2021

What is design?

Design is all about taking a business’s needs or requirements and finding a solution in a creative, compelling way. The design aims to find solutions to problems and thus always aims for a specific result. It’s a concept that has many dimensions, and it includes a bunch of different disciplines such as interaction design, information architecture, visual design, usability, and human-computer interaction. it is the creative and analytical process of determining what a website, device, or piece of software is going to be.

There are 10 principles for good design by Dieter Ram’s (The power of good design)

1) Good design is innovative

2) Good design makes a product useful

3) Good design is aesthetic

4) Good design makes a product understandable

5) Good design is unobtrusive

6) Good design is honest

7) Good design is long-lasting

8) Good design is thorough down to the last detail

9) Good design is environmentally-friendly

10) Good design is as little design as possible

What does Good Design vs Bad Design look like?

So let’s now look at two cases of good design and bad design. We’ll start with a familiar physical object before moving on to a digital example.

Good vs bad design: Example1 (Physical object )

Take a look at the image below. Notice any good or bad design? At first glance, the product is recognizable as a water purifier, and looks functional; it’s got all the necessary components of the water purifier, now consider the following question

So in the first scenario, we start the tap to take the water, and it works fine. But in the second scenario when we try to close the tap the water gets split outside. Isn’t it? Wastage of water. A user shouldn’t have to think so hard about how the stop wastage of water from the water tap. The user should be able to use it without error right from the start.

Good vs bad design: Example2 (Digital object )

So Before we consider our digital example, allow me to introduce you to wireframes. You can read a comprehensive introduction to wireframes here, but, put simply, a wireframe is a drawing of a design. Just like architects use blueprints, designers use a wireframe to communicate their initial design ideas and to demonstrate how the design will function. Wireframes can be hand-drawn or created on a computer and are often used when designing digital products. It’s important to note that wireframes focus on the general layout and functionality of the product — visuals and styling elements are kept to a minimum!

With that in mind, take a look at the wireframes below. Notice any examples of good or bad digital design?

In the wireframe on the left, you can see that the most prominent button is the “delete” button. The text is larger, it is highlighted in a bright red color, and it’s on the right-hand side, which is usually reserved for confirmations. This unintuitive design could very quickly lead to a user accidentally deleting something they had meant to save. Not a great user experience!

Then there’s the wireframe on the right. Whilst the unsubscribe check box is selected, there is no option to unsubscribe. The buttons only allow you to subscribe or cancel. Not having the option of unsubscribing from something that you no longer want to receive can be extremely frustrating for users. Another example of bad design!

Fixing bad digital design

In the wireframes below, we’ve corrected the original wireframes to demonstrate good digital design.

In the example on the left, emphasis has now been placed on the “save” option, and it’s situated in a familiar position, reducing the chances of users accidentally deleting something they want to keep. In the example on the right, users can now confirm their decision to unsubscribe. Unlike the original example, the copy is straightforward and the consequences of confirming the action are clear.

Examples of good design and bad design

Examples of good designs:

Lenovo 300 FDH Webcam (Good Design)

SAFETY IS THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY

· This webcam is the best example as it indicates a white light when it’s connected and with a green light when it’s in use. This way we are aware of the webcam. It also has a covering for physical protection.

2) Gaming Mouse (Good Desing )