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Design

A philosophical view of Design; a compilation of theory, principles, laws, and any piece of knowledge that highlights its role in shaping the form & function of products, processes, and practices in the purest possible way, being applicable by any role on any industry or domain.

Universal Principles of Design

(Law of) Flexibility Trade-Offs, the more requirements a design needs to fullfil, the less optimal it will be for each of them. design, hurts all: design, production, and usability. “As the flexibility of a design increases, the usability and performance of the design decreases.” “Jack of all trades, master of none.” /conflict, unbalanced, unstable/

Alignment, related elements (either by similarity or opposition) should always share a common, shared characteristic when designed together, for instance, their place in the composition. Misalignment among related items could hurt usability and lead to an undesired interpretation of the design. graphic design, hurts usability

Feature Creep, the fact of continually expand of add new features beyond the original scope. The more features, or larger/more complex features we add: the more expensive it will be, and the greater the chances to hurt other features (or even the whole project) there are. design, hurts all: design, production, and usability. “less is more.” /polluting, hurting other features, killing the whole project/

Desired Lines, or desired paths, it refers to the fact that users often choose a different way of using something so that they generate their own approach. In case designers ask, research, and try to design thinking in the final user, they should know that what users say they want is not always reliable. On the other side, when designers ignore at all the users preferences, they do something called Designer-Centered Design. design, hurts usability

Top-Down Lighting Bias, it’s when an image or sculpture has it’s lighting coming from the bottom (instead of the top), which makes it look unnatural, creepy, or simply uncomfortable to watch because we have evolved in an environment in which naturally light comes from top to bottom. Lighting from bottom to top can lead us to interpret different or even opposed face expressions, the building shape, convex vs. concave, etc. visual design, hurts usability. +75% of historic paintings use a lighting from the top left. /inviting/

Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO), often the quality of a system’s output is highly dependant on the quality of its input whether it’s build with or uses bad inputs. Both prevention and correction of both after receiving inputs and before sending outputs are necessary. design and production, hurts quality, thus usability

Hick’s Law makes a correlation between the time it takes to make a decision and the amount of options there are. It is the most options we have, the longer it will take us to decide. The more options we have to take into account for taking a fast decision, the more dissatisfaction and frustration we get, also the chances to make a mistake increases. design, usability

KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid!), the idea to keep, think, and make things the easiest way possible. design, hurts all: design, production, and usability

Charles Antony Richard Hoare:

“There are two ways of constructing a software design. One is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies; the other is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.”

Antoine de Saint Exupéry:

“It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Leonardo da Vinci:

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Mies Van Der Rohe:

“Less is more.”

Left-Digit Effect: users, specially consumers, overweight or prioritize the left-most digit of prices, so they tend to perceive it’s cheaper than it really is. Studies show that sells increase about 15%, even with small differences such as 100 vs. 99.99 (-0.01). However, many cultures see this as something bad; as a tricky pricing method from a cheap reseller for cheap products. Expensive, premium items should avoid that and use rounded numbers. usability [not-design]

Selection Bias, sometimes we distort (or forget) and condition the way we collect data, thus the data we select to analyze is not what we are looking for. pre-design, design

IKEA Effect: often, too simple products lead to a lack of engagement from the user. They feel something is missing, or they don’t value it because they don’t create a strong enough connection with it. design

Supernormal Stimuli, a special kind of stimulus that mimics in a much stronger, exaggerated way a real and normal thing we are familiar with. It’s something we (or other animals) recognize by instinct, often unconsciously, triggering a strong emotional response. For example: food with high levels of sugar, bright colors on objects that look much more appealing than the original/natural ones, fictional characters that resemble the image of a “super” mother or father, etc. /Niko Tinbergen/ design

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Form Ever Follows Function, every form or appearance decision taken must be organically lead by the rationale of its functional impact and purpose to fulfill on the final product, not to be imposed for arbitrarily for—not justified and irrelevant—aesthetic reasons. First make it work, then make it beautiful—if not already. /Louis H. Sullivan/ design, all steps

Aesthetic-Usability Effect (quite opposite to Form Ever Follows Function), it is the fact that most people perceives something aesthetically beautiful as something that actually works well, or in general, is better than its more ugly version. It seems easier to use—jut because it looks nice and attractive, wether it’s true ot not. “If it looks good, it should be good.” design

Consistency, usability and learnability of things improves when made to work similar to the similar ones. It reduces accidental errors. knowledge gets transferred, which is more efficient than teaching something again. Consistency can be visual, functional, internal (black-box), external (outside the product) /principles of least astonishment/ MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) deign, refers to finding the right balance between innovation and familiarity.

Five Hats Rack, ways to organize information, by: 1. alpha, 2. category, 3. continuum (a common measure), 4. location, 5. time

Zeigarnik Effect, when we get all that we expect, we tend to forget details, if we want/need something more, we will keep the important things in mind, consciously. (do not give away the ending, keep intrigue) design

Affordances (take notes from previous sources)

Law of Prägnanz

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Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles of Good Design

  1. Good design is innovative: design always comes about in connection with innovative technology.
  2. Good design makes products useful: good design optimizes usefulness and ignores anything that doesn’t serve the purpose or works against it.
  3. Good design is aesthetic: objects you use daily significantly shape your personal surroundings and your sense of well-being.
  4. Good design makes a product understandable: it makes it easy to understand the structure of the product.
  5. Good design is unobtrusive: products that serve a purpose have the characteristics of a tool.
  6. Good design is honest: honest means not trying to make a product look more innovative, powerful or more valuable than it really is.
  7. Good design is long-lasting: in contrast ot fashionable design, it lasts many years even in our current throwaway society.
  8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail: nothing should be arbitrary or left to chance (thoroughness and precision are expressions of respect for the user).
  9. Good design is evironmentally friendly: design makes an important contribution to preserving the environment.
  10. Good design is as little design as possible: back to simplicity; back to purity.

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