On Function-Driven Design
Thoughts about functional design
They say that need is the mother of invention. Humans have been creating things for thousands of years. Clothes, weapons, teapots, cars, cities, even society — they are all products of our thinking. Few ideas have been born out of thin air. More often than not, objects and notions that we use today are solutions to more or less important problems. We wear clothes when we are cold (or want to hide our nonglamorous bodyparts). We drive cars when we need to get from point A to B. We buy or grow food when we’re hungry.
Our lives are filled with issues. Big or small, they drive us to improvement and evolution. The solutions we devise are purely functional — they are not intended to please us aesthetically but satisfy a sensible need. As a species humans are function-driven.
It is only natural that we carry that notion into the world of digital design. While beauty and visual flair draw attention, usefulness and functionality are what hold it. Even the most incredible user interface does not guarantee the success of an app if the structure beneath is flawed.
Function-driven design is the response to people’s needs. Both in the result and the process, it depends on learning as much as possible about the user, getting to know their issues, stepping in their shoes, and solving the problem. In a way, functional design is the most human design approach there is. It uses beauty as one of its tools but never prioritizes it over purpose.
So, what are the principles of function-driven design?
Purpose
Everything exists for a reason. Heck, even beautiful but impossible to be made into actual products UI designs on Dribble serve the purpose of collecting likes and getting jobs for visual designers. Whether its a chair or website, every object and digital product accomplishes a single goal. Sometimes it is obscured or supported by so many features that the overall purpose may not be clear.
Take Instagram, for example. It has many different uses — sending messages, posting videos, saving photographs for later, stalking friends and celebrities — but all of them help accomplish one goal: sharing little bits of your life one post at a time. Identifying that precedent purpose during the design process helps set a clear direction for the whole project.
Context
Considering the audience and their situation is probably the most important element of a successful design process. There are no universal solutions and the very definition of usefulness is based upon context. What works for one problem does not necessarily solve another.
During the design phase, many different use cases and scenarios should be taken into consideration. I remember working on a website that was used by different user groups. Each and every single one of them had unique needs and requirements for functionality. I created personas and user journeys to keep the features aligned with the overall purpose of the site. Considering different needs and intentions required the features to be approached from two or more perspectives.
Asking the right questions can help designers get a good grasp of the context.
- What do people currently know about the product? Will they know how to use it?
- Where will people use the product?
- Is the product to be used separately or as a part of a larger scheme? Perhaps it involves some type of group activity?
- How familiar are people with the overall concepts of a product? Could they’ve used something similar in the past?
- How much time do they have? Are they laying on a couch, eating dinner with family, or running to an office during the rush hour?
- What kind of expectations do people have about the product? Do they hope to use it daily for years or just one or two times and quickly forget about it?
- Do they feel sure about using the product? What can they be afraid of?
- What kind of support can you offer them?
- Where do you see this product in a year?
Research
Function-driven design depends on data. It is not possible to solve a problem without knowing it. By talking to people and doing research designers can look at matters from different perspectives, spot traps, and avoid mistakes. The more they know, the better their understanding of a problem.
Sometimes people use things beyond their original intention. For example, the immortal HTC HD2 smartphone, despite being released in 2009 with Windows Phone operating system on board, became the go-to device for all tinkerers and hackers. Even today, 8 years after it saw daylight, the HD2 is used for testing unofficial builds of different software.
Talking to users and getting to know their needs may help approach the problem from unexpected angles. No design decision should be arbitral as all taste and preference is subjective and may harm usability of the design. A functional product should consider the needs of different users equally in order to perform the assigned task.
Some simple and budget options for conducting research that provides useful information:
- user interviews,
- A/B testing,
- Google Analytics data,
- competition analysis,
- best UX practices: (uxdesign.cc, Nick Babich, uxbooth, Tubik Studio, Baymard),
- specific user research (e.g. by Nielsen Norman Group),
- feedback research: app reviews, opinions, blogs & video reviews,
- workshops & conferences.
Approachability
Even the most well-thought-out function means little when it is not approachable. Luxury audio equipment, despite being incredible pieces of engineering, is available only to a small portion of our population. Good design spreads its function and makes it accessible for everyone. That concerns both the price and facilities for people with disabilities.
Here’s a fun fact: some Ikea furniture, including the famous Lack series, is made of cardboard. It may sound terrible at first but indeed is genius. Ikea furniture is cheap and available at a fraction of one month’s salary. It is bought by singles, couples, families, students, and elderly people. The cardboard inside the iconic all-white Lack coffee table makes it possible for Ikea to cut costs and make it available to everyone.
When it breaks, some pieces of Ikea furniture can be recycled. Buying a new table will not burn a whole in a pocket. Cheap furniture serves its purpose as well as a $300 or $400 designer table made of higher quality materials.
Make your product unapproachable and it may as well not exist at all.
Beauty
There’s room for beauty in every functional design, it just shouldn’t play first fiddle. I once bought a beautiful minimalistic wristwatch. I fell in love it the minute I saw it on a manufacturer’s website. It looked sleek and elegant. I immediately ordered it.
When I received the package, I was disappointed and angry. Having the physical watch in my hands, I noticed that its face lacks hour indicators. That made it incredibly difficult to read in a hurry, rendering it next to useless for a heavy watch user like me. Moreover, those indicators that were actually there, were printed as lines so thin that they were almost unreadable in broad daylight (which, according to research I conducted some time ago, is very important to casual watch wearers — but that’s a story for another day). In pursuit of making the watch so beautiful and desirable, the designers forgot to make it functional.
Any design can be beautiful as long as it is useful. Visual flair is the cherry on top of a delicious birthday cake. If the pie itself is not tasty, no fruit or decoration will save it from joining the leftovers.
Conclusion
I recently read a brilliant article against pure functional design written by Hayden Bleasel. Since this text is basically an extended version of my original response to it, I will allow myself to end it with the same quote.
The crap happening now in technology that concentrates on functionality shares the same mindset as the Soviet building factories: let’s make it work. But that’s not human, that’s not who we are. Beauty is a core part of humanity. The shit we are making now that is purely functional is inhuman. That is: not made for human beings.
— Stefan Sagmeister
I agree that beauty is a very human thing. It evokes emotions and moves deeply, often causing us to take action or speak up. However, it is also ephemeral and fades quickly if it has no solid foundations inside. Beauty does not improve conversion or increase sales on a website. It doesn’t solve communication issues within an organization or impact the quality of living among young children in developing countries. But functional, well-thought design does.
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I am Jarek, an all-around designer who is passionate about putting together things that work. Please clap 👏 if you liked what you read and visit my website to find out more about me. 🕸 www.jaroslawmorawski.com
