Dieter Rams’ 10 Principles for Good Design
Written by Karen Yu
“Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.” — Don Norman
Last week, the Shopee Design team was invited to catch Dieter Rams’ Documentary. Rams is a famous designer who built the foundation for today’s design. Albeit retired, he still has a massive influence on all modern designers. Rams is known for his 10 principles for good design as well as his “less but better” belief.
During the film, Rams pointed out the shortages of “bad” designs he came across, countering it with his famous 10 principles. Let’s get straight into it.
1. Good design is innovative.
Rams believes good designs should prompt users or readers to interact with the product in a brand new way. He said, “ I find it better to improve things than to constantly force a new idea. If I start from the outside, then my designs will always be formalistic.”
Lesson: Step away from the physical form of an object. Finding out the inner creativity is the duty of designer.
2. Good design makes a product useful.
A designer should explore and expand the functions of a product. In UI/UX design, it is crucial to display useful information that will influence users. As such, knowing how to deal with all design elements is a real skill expected of a designer.
Let’s look at Spotify, for instance. The ads shown are designed to communicate its purpose; to lead customers to purchase its premium membership. This is what we need to keep in mind when creating ads — making customers pay. Every page, every element that appears on a user’s smartphone should be useful to the product.
3. Good design is aesthetic.
Aesthetics is what paves the way for customers to relax and enjoy your product. By creating a visually pleasing product, you are not merely striving for usability, but also making users fall in love with the choice they made.
Rams believes that designs fail if too many unnecessary decorative elements are used. The key is to preserve the purity of colours or outlook. To design for the general public, one should also aim for timelessness. Avoid chasing after the latest trends because styles stand the test of time while fashion expires fast.
4. Good design makes a product understandable.
When a design is simple, it is pretty much self-explanatory. However, if a product is complex, it will need more features to help users understand how to operate its various functions.
In the documentary, Rams stated that if the design can only be understood by the person who created it, then it is a failure. A product should be designed in a way that is accepted used by more people in their day-to-day life, so avoid making it too complicated.
Our designer Siqi stated that this principle means a lot to our users and us. “If the design helps them understand how to use our app, they don’t need to go through pages long of instructions. This principle challenges us to keep things simple, and it inspires me to be a better designer!” he added.
5. Good design is unobtrusive.
“Simplicity is not the absence of clutter…simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product.” — Apple Designer, Jon Ives.
One of the many reasons people love surfing Instagram or browsing for inspiration on Pinterest is because they are very intuitive to use. If you come across a post you like, you instinctively know what to do to access it. For instance, to find out more information about a post, you simply need to click on the link. These links or advertisements are hidden from the main page to prevent obstructive information, which allows users to surf the app more efficiently.
The key is to simplify the design. If it is too unique, it will distract and overwhelm users.
Our designer Si Han responded to this by describing how he applies it to his work. “I am updating and maintaining our app icons to give it greater clarity and a more consistent look while maintaining the app’s overall theme and aesthetics. That way, users can have a more pleasant experience using our app without getting distracted by the icons.”
6. Good design is honest.
Imagine buying something cheap off Amazon. It seems like a tantalising deal, boasting a plethora of amazing features. And then you receive it — the moment of truth — and realise that it fails to deliver its promise in terms of quality or durability.
Good design shows you exactly what an object does; nothing more, nothing less. It has nothing to hide and shows the actual function and meaning of a product.
“As a designer, it is my duty to design a medium of communication to convey information, status, and even emotion to our users accurately and honestly. We should inform users of the system’s actual status, whether it is running successfully or crashing, in a way that is acceptable by users,” Shixuan said in response to the documentary.
7. Good design is long lasting.
Or should we say…good design is evergreen.
Can you come up with an alternative way of producing an umbrella? We bet you can’t. This smart, useful invention (or design, if you may) has helped us tremendously in our everyday life.
As technology improves rapidly, newly designed products are being produced at greater speed. There are just too many options in the market, making users more fickle than before. This behaviour causes wastage, as products are used for a short period of time before being disposed of. This trend is commonly known as fast fashion.
Additionally, some products are decreasing in quality to fulfil the demands of fast fashion. It significantly compromises the quality of people’s lives as we fail to meet their needs. A good design should, thus, benefit people while being sustainable and energy-efficient.
Now, back to our umbrella analogy. If one designer redesigns umbrella for the sake of design, he has undoubtedly misunderstood the true definition of design.
8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Have you ever noticed that some things are only 90% well-designed? Most details are well-balanced; from function and structure to aesthetics, the design communicates the right messages well. But the designer messes up on some seemingly trivial details, which derails the entire object. One wrong choice of colour will destroy the design. Can you imagine a green ‘M’ on McDonald’s logo? Every detail is crucial. They represent the information we want to convey to users.
9. Good design is environmentally friendly.
In the world of physical product design, even the best of designs get lost as soon as we throw it away. This behaviour becomes an issue when unwanted products end up in landfills.
Although environmental concerns may not be such a burden as digital designers, we still need to care. Nobody wants their design to become trash in the world wide web. Being environmentally friendly is, thus, about keeping the Internet clutter-free. It is a concept that is easy to understand but not easy to follow.
The key here is not to waste our users’ time. When they are using our product, give them something inspiring or unforgettable to takeaway.
10. Good design is as little design as possible.
Rams always emphasise the concept less is more. Do not cramp too many design ideas into one product; it will turn the product into a complicated map where both designers and users get lost.
Less design makes the product easier to understand. If there is a clear connection between the designer and the user, then the design is definitely successful.
Conclusion
These 10 principles are meant to help designers determine the design direction quickly. By adhering to them, your product is guaranteed to be accepted by users.
“I love how this documentary is so relatable and applicable to my work. I am currently working on an internal project where I try to reduce the amount of information in my design as much as possible to reduce cognitive overload. This approach allows users to focus on completing their tasks without much distraction,” our teammate Atiqah shared.
As a UI/UX designer, we should remember these principles by heart. Once you truly understand them, you will find yourself working more effectively and becoming more resource-efficient. Naturally, innovative solutions will flow to you; and you could be a good designer just like Rams.
Shopee is the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Shopee connects shoppers, brands and sellers across Asia and other fast-growing markets, empowering anyone to buy and sell anywhere and at any time.
Shopee offers an easy, secure, and engaging experience that is enjoyed by millions of people daily. It offers a wide product assortment, supported by integrated payments and logistics, as well as popular entertainment features tailored for each market. Shopee is also a key contributor to the region’s digital economy with a firm commitment to helping brands and entrepreneurs succeed in e-commerce.
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