10 good and bad designs in my daily life
Introduction
As a rookie, who is new to this field of design and trying to interpret things around me, I have decided to write this article for the first time and would like to share with you my experiences on how I see designs in my daily life and how it changed my perception on designs in my surrounding, I hope this article serves its purpose and share my past few days of learning with you. So let’s get started with;
What is design?
I’ve been learning about design for a few days and it has cleared one thing to me is that design is just not about creating something beautiful, it’s about getting functionality to it which satisfies the user’s needs.
I also learned about the timeline of the design, that how design as a form of art has evolved with functionality that completes the user’s basic needs, and how history has taught us to build products over time and giving us feedback regarding them, such as take an example of a car, since the inception of automobiles our vehicles have been radically altered to embrace trends and their development is an ongoing evolution. Car designs have changed quite a bit since they were first introduced by the endless cycle of innovation, technology, and materials.
The other thing I learned was Dieter Ram’s 10 principles of good design, he has not only observed or designed some products but also has documented good design and taught us the perception of looking at the design.
How to think like a designer?
As a fledgling designer, I have much to develop first and start from basics that is why I’ve decided to bring out 10 designs good and bad which I’m in contact with within my daily life which would help me think like a designer and help to see things differently.
Good Designs:
“Good design is like a refrigerator — when it works, no one notices, but when it doesn’t, it sure stinks.” –Irene Au
I could find more of the good designs at my house so here are some of them which may or may not be good designs for some people, but this is all I found;
- A Can: This is a Gulab jamun can and the front view was interesting it's well-designed which helps us to open the lid of the can and gives us an exemplary experience by giving instructions on the product.
2. Toothpaste: This toothpaste is a good design than others because it is not only easy to use the tube by squeezing the paste out of it but also has a transparent body so that we could see how much of the paste is used.
3. Pen/Pencil case: This is one of the good designs I have at my house and could be used as a place where we could store a pen or pencil or can be something else for someone and could be used even as a weight to keep on light objects such as papers so they don’t fly away (just a matter of perception).
4. Google pay: I would say it’s an exceptional payment app that has nice colours in the interface of the app and the payment has made it so much easier in just two steps, which saves users time and gives users a good experience.
5. Linkedin: It’s already a great app for finding jobs, but it also helps you to connect with people and even chat with them. It also shows feeds of users about what other people are posting and could also join groups which all together keep us hooked with the app.
Bad Designs:
“Any time you see signs or labels added to a device, it is an indication of bad design: a simple lock should not require instructions.” — Donald A. Norman
Bad designs are hard to find and were very challenging to narrow down the points for these products, so here are some of them;
- USB portal/USB: I could say which to choose but I always would scuffle with inserting a USB in the portal and I could rarely get it right on the first try.
2. Cello tape: The frustrating thing about cello tape is that whenever we would cut the tape after that it is hard to find the starting point of the tape because it gets camouflaged with the whole tape.
3. Water tap: The problem I found in the water tap was that the water was flowing way before the basin. The problem could be in the alignment of the tap which deprives the usability.
4. The Stoic: It is an app based on quotes written by the stoic philosophers, so they have a feature of screen reader which is good for accessibility but the way voice Interface speaks in very fast and doesn’t go with the mood.
https://www.veed.io/download/ca135866-b689-4748-b270-fe5766d92d94
5. Figma: The thing which I get frustrated with within Figma is that for a slider/carousel we have to make multiple screens for every slide which seems a time-consuming process. While Framer solves that problem effortlessly.
End
I hope this article has offered you insights about design and experience around you. Feel free to share your own first experience as a designer in the comments below. THANKS! for being patient and reading my first article.
