Good design is thorough down to the last detail - Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
Dieter RamsRead
Design should not dominate things, should not dominate people. It should help people. That's its role.
Interpretation
Design should enhance and assist human experience rather than overwhelm it.
This quote by Dieter Rams emphasizes the role of design as a supportive tool for individuals rather than a controlling force. It suggests that good design should prioritize the needs and experiences of people, facilitating their interactions with objects and environments without becoming an intrusive or dominating aspect of their lives.
In practice
In a presentation about user-centered design principles.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail - Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
My goal is to omit everything superfluous so that the essential is shown to best possible advantage.
You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people; design is made for people.
Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
My heart belongs to the details. I actually always found them to be more important than the big picture. Nothing works without details. They are everything, the baseline of quality.
Things which are different in order simply to be different are seldom better, but that which is made to be better is almost always different.
Design needs to be plugged into human behavior. Design dissolves in behavior.
Throughout this book, we've been evangelizing simplicity, but ironically, the practice of simplicity is not simple. It is easy to build a bulky design by adding layer upon layer of navigation and features; it's much more difficult to create simple, graceful designs. Paring designs to essential elements while maintaining elegance and functionality requires courage and discipline.
Content informs design; design without content is decoration.
I am passionate about what design can do - how far it can support the new ideas and the new ways of living of this 21st Century. Good design accelerates this exciting future where manufacturing is local, materials and processes are cradle to cradle, business models are both socially and financially driven.
It is sad that so many designers don't know how to make. CAD software can make a bad design look palatable! It is sad that four years can be spent on a 3D design course without making anything! People who are great at designing and making have a great advantage.
Design principle: Take things away until the design breaks, then put that last thing back in.
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