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
You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people; design is made for people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Good design requires an understanding of the needs and behaviors of people.
Dieter Rams emphasizes that successful design is fundamentally about people. To create effective designs, one must grasp not only aesthetic elements but also the preferences and behaviors of users, indicating that empathy and human insight are crucial in the design process.
Themes
DesignPeopleUnderstandingEmpathyBehavior
In practice
Example use cases
A designer can use this quote during a presentation on the importance of user-centered design.
More from Dieter Rams
All quotes →My goal is to omit everything superfluous so that the essential is shown to best possible advantage.
Dieter RamsRead
Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
Dieter RamsRead
Design should not dominate things, should not dominate people. It should help people. That's its role.
Dieter RamsRead
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.
Dieter RamsRead
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.
Dieter RamsRead
Similar quotes
Designers provide ways into—and out of—the flood of words by breaking up text into pieces and offering shortcuts and alternate routes through masses of information. (...) Although many books define the purpose of typography as enhancing the readability of the written word, one of design’s most humane functions is, in actuality, to help readers avoid reading.
Ellen LuptonRead
Form must never trump function. Some objects are made to look so smooth, you don't know where to pick them up or how to turn them on. If I'm designing a garlic press or cheese grater, I need my hand to fit comfortably on it. I like to know, instinctively, how to use it.
Michael GravesRead
Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it's decoration.
Jeffrey ZeldmanRead
If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page... When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful.
Adrian FrutigerRead
The role of designers and product makers is to really become much better editors. What kind of functionality is actually needed - and truly delightful - to consumers? Remove all the extraneous stuff.
Yves BeharRead
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.
Jonathan IveRead