Unobtrusive Design, An Example
Dieter Ram’s 10 principles of good design are often if not the most referenced to when rationalizing a design. How can one not! They are wicked simple. Yet, how rarely do we witness products or designs adhering to few or even one from his ten principles.
However, I am pleased.
I am very pleased today to share with you a very tangible example of the ever illusive commandment from Ram’s, “Good design is unobtrusive,” at play in a technology product you and I so dearly use.
The example is Medium. The way Medium tacitly hides the top bar and the bottom footer is pleasantly choreographed and do a great job of facilitating what the user/reader wants to do in that context, read. They take away all the features that assist with activities other than reading gradually when the readers starts scrolling to provide the reader a consistent, clean and very intuitive environment so long the user desires to keep reading. I believe it is one of the best depictions of Ram’s “Good design is unobtrusive” commandment. Here is an illustration of it in action
