Design in Daily Life
Good design is not easy
“Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.” — Brian Reed, front-end developer, and musician.
Looking at the example of poor design can be as useful and inspiring as looking at a good design. It helps designers to better comprehend the importance of design principles and theories in real life.
But what makes a design good or poor? how good and bad design can deeply impact our daily life?
To answer those questions first we need an index to assess a good design. Sometimes we already observed that fact, but couldn’t express the idea in words. So, principles are here to make our understanding of the world easier and distribute wisdom crafted after years of human work.
In the late 70s, the functionalist & Industrial designer, Dieter Rams asked himself the same question, What is good design? Dieter’s answer is expressed in his 10 principles for good design. This is by far, the most well-known collection of principles in the history of design as a discipline that still remains a source of inspiration for designers today.
Inspired by Rams’ Principle, I thought about what is a good design to me? So I came out with my set of design principles which defines a great user experience for me.
- Good Design is accessible for everyone
- Good Design is joyful/valuable
- Good Design is intuitive
- Good Design is learning from the mistakes (AI feature)/optimizing itself
- Good Design is communicative
- Good Design is clear and respects humanity and people’s privacy
- Good Design has a positive impact (on people’s lives or the environment)
- Good Design is aesthetic
- Good Design has less environmental footprint than the prior ones
- Good Design is the closest one to nature
Using the mentioned points, I will try to find samples of good and bad design which impacts my day-to-day life.
My user experience: Good vs Poor design
Philips Hue lightings
Philips Hue is a line of color-changing LED lamps and white bulbs that can be controlled wirelessly. You don't need to be an electrician or tech geek to make all of your house lights into a smart system. You can do it by merely changing a regular lamp to the same shape as the smart one. They are not only easy to install but also fun to use.
You can save energy, control the lights, even change the mood of the area from anywhere just simply by clicking on the Hue app. What do you want more from a bulb?
Clue Menstrual Tracking app
Clue is a menstrual tracking app, an encyclopedia, a resource for your health, and more.
It is very easy to use and yet solves a problem I along with other women consistently have.
More important than tracking your cycle, is that this app has more than 30 different tracking options, including periods, birth control, pain (cramps, headaches), moods, emotions, sex, and sleep, skin, and hair. It presents all the options as simple yet descriptive icons, with no more than a few on-screen at a time.
As a user, I appreciate that the information, prediction, and analysis are scientifically backed by a top research institution and clinicians. Your data is also safe and secure and they don’t use it to show you personalized ads.
Aftershockz earplug with bone conduction technology
I recently moved to a country known for 2 things, rainy-windy weather and enthusiastic cyclists. You guessed right, “The Netherlands”. Here, the first things you need are a good raincoat and a bike. However, what makes your life much more joyful is to have a lightweight waterproof wireless earplug with an ergonomic shape that doesn't fly on the wind (like Apple’s earplugs).
My main problem with most of the earplugs was blocking ambient sound which can be dangerous in terrific. Atershockz solved this problem by developing bone conduction technology meaning that you hear the sound from your cheekbone and not by auricle.
Examples of Poor Design:
Sometimes the best way to illustrate the value of design is through examples of bad design and we can find many samples everywhere.
Netflix autoplay preview
I really hate this feature. I find myself tiptoeing around the hover areas with my mouse in the margins so I don’t trigger the autoplay. Audio is the biggest problem here, it shouldn’t be set as ‘on’ by default. Even Facebook and Instagram know better by setting videos to mute by default.
It isn’t only that you choose an article or film and suddenly scramble to turn the volume down. You also experience a perturbing lack of control when these things happen.
Apple charger
We all know apple for the sleek, minimalistic design and durability of their products compare to other brands in the market. That’s true for just about everything Apple makes, with one exception: charging cables. The question is how did apple come with this flawed design?
One explanation given according to David L. Veksler is, “after Green my Apple campaign, PVC has been removed from cable material. I don't know the exact impact of PVC on the environment but do know that with this decision, apple’s reputation for making quality accessories has been ruined. Billions of broken Apple cables have been prematurely sent to the landfill. Billions of replacement cables will be sent to landfills when the gadgets they charge become obsolete. While Apple no longer uses PVC in their cables, many people now rely on cheap third-party cables from China, which may use toxic chemicals like lead, arsenic, mercury, and etc.”
Christmas lights
Christmas tree lights. They make your tree look so pretty, but they’re such an annoyance if they get tangled. Which happens all the time, unless you are extremely lucky or very well organized.
Takeaway
A poorly thought-out design can turn the most basic and obvious interaction into frustrating and potentially embarrassing tasks (Norman door example), on the other hand, a great design can transform a complicated and intimidating task into a simple intuitive one.
Although Good design might seem obvious and effortless and harder to find, now we all know designers should consider so many principles and user needs into a design to make the design intuitive and obvious.
