Design!! What makes a design good and Bad.

Being a Graphic designer for almost three years I always ask myself that whatever I design weather it is Print Media or Digital media, does it really a design or just an artwork that is copied/inspired from other sources.

Does my work really justify with my profession?

Do I really know the science behind the design?

These question haunts me every time when I start designing something. Thinking about the ethical responsibilities of designing I need a precise definition of what a design is. What makes a design good or bad? In this longish article I will explain my understanding of design. What makes them good design and bad design. Let’s dig in.

So after checking a couple of sources, I found that Wikipedia’s definition is pretty useful and in line with my own experience.

“A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process, or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product or process.”

In very general terms, design is the realization of a concept, idea or theory into a drawing, plan, specification, model, and so on that ultimately allows a series objectives to be achieved or resolved. In fact, a design refers to the plan for achieving that objective. Color, shape, technology, and function each are means of realizing this objective.

Design is around us

So everything we see is design. Design is for everyone and no one in particular. It is something that is executed by everyone, including you, even if you’ve never considered yourself as a designer. Everyone is a designer, and you can make high-impact design decisions without realizing you’re a designer. Design happens in many professions and not just in product development. Everything ever created has been designed. Sometimes consciously, at other times not so much.

“Everything is designed but few things are designed well”- Brian Reed

As you might have realized by now, the design is not easy to define. The term, “Design” is overused. Defining Design is like defining life. we need to be specific about what kind of design we want to investigate. Every professional and author, every team, and every company has its own definition of design and understanding of what it does and what it’s all about. Each of them addresses the question of the meaning of design very differently. In engineering, it can be product design, process design, structural design, algorithm design, …… on the visual perspective it can be, graphics, art, fashion, etc. Or it can be user experience design, interface (website/app), etc.

Each of the design types has its definition of good or bad design. In common, a good design satisfies all of its design constraints.

But there are things that overlap with design in ways that can be confusing, especially in art and engineering. Let’s clear the misconception about them and focus on the key differences among them.

Design is not art.

• Art is the creation of which the main purpose is to convey an emotion or thought.
• Design is a process to create something useful that has to be functional.
• Art is about artist, design is about the user.
• Art is subjective, design is objective.
• Artist primarily work off instinct, whereas designer employ a methodical, data-driven process.

Design is not engineering

• Product is designed first and then engineered.
• Engineer solve problem between parts and parts in artificial world.
• Design solve problem between human and artificial world.
• design is about reducing engineering costs.

Design is not innovation

• Innovation makes new tools.
• Design use the tool to solve problem in the real world.

“Design is design. Everything else is everything else”

Let’s sum it up

Design is about making the user’s interaction with the environment more natural and complete. It is about taking products from being usable to delightful, and then beyond that — to meaningful. In other words, it is the process of visualizing and planning the creation of a product, systems, buildings, vehicles, etc. It’s a user-centric process, i.e. users are at the center of the design thinking approach. It is about creating solutions for people, physical items or more conceptual products to address a need or a problem.

If you are graphic designer, then should know that Design is a work process which has a user perspective and drives development based on your specific customers’ needs. So main thing is the process of imagining and planning the creation of objects, systems, buildings, vehicles, etc. So basically It is about creating solutions for people. Let’s assume you managed to fulfil their need and it is highly usable also, still some users dislike the design. Why?

So what makes a design good or bad?

There’s definitely more than one way to explain it, but if I were to describe designers in one term, it would be “problem solvers”. Good design is one that fills the gap between business goals and user needs. In order to fill this gap, a process must be followed. A process that takes into consideration best practices of user experience (UX) and usability guidelines to produce the desired outcome.

The characteristics of the good design include:

· Transparent and visible to its users

· Simple

· Relevant

· Usable

· Problem solver

· Easy to understand

· Effective to meet the goals

· Fresh with a pleasant color scheme

· Improve Your Business and Boost Sales

It makes users tasks easier for them and they enjoy interacting with the product. It gives them clarity on the provided features and how to follow the correct path to achieve their objectives.

“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible.”- Don Norman

A product with good design makes users feel satisfied by providing all the necessary information they need at that point to decide about what to do next. It should be as transparent and clear as a mirror. It should not be a struggle for the user to find out where to go next to achieve their goal just like smoke that obscure everything.

“BAD DESIGN IS SMOKE, WHILE GOOD DESIGN IS A MIRROR.” — JUAN CARLOS FERNANDEZ

The bad design on the other hand is:

· Cluttered interface

· Poor navigation

· Confusing layout

· Complex tasks

· Irrelevant user feedback

· Inconsistent experience

· Difficult content

· Unpleasant color scheme

The users do not want to interact with a product designed poorly as it is not clear to them where to go to achieve their objectives. Hence, they leave bad design immediately. This is like a smoky area from where the people want to go away as soon as possible.

As we have learned that Each of the design types has its definition of good or bad design. So let’s know a bit about them too.

Product design

Dieter Rams, a German industrial and functionalist designer, expressed in the late 70s his idea of good design through his famous “10 Principles for Good Design”: a simple and clear list of key points, which still remains a source of inspiration for designers today.

Credit : www.vitsoe.com

If a product fulfil all these criteria then we can say that product is a good design, simple as that.

UI/UX Design

Traits of a good UI/UX:

· Intuitive — people can feel their way around quite easily

· Skeuomorphism– even if people visit your website for the first time, they should feel like they know how it works

· Leading — the best UI’s will lead people from point to point, moving them along their journey to their ultimate goal, buying your product

Traits of a bad UI/UX:

· Sluggish and unresponsive — interaction will be slow and clunky

· Complicated — the site will be hard for people to understand

· Confusing — it will be unclear about where the visitor should go next

· Inconsistent design — pages will look different, throwing users off

· No target — there is no clear audience for the website

· Lack of social interaction — social media plays a big part in business nowadays and people like to see that

. Readability issues — good UI includes content too and unreadable content is absolute no-no for good UI. Make sure font size is big enough, the actual font itself is appropriate, and your color-scheme makes it easy to read what’s on your website.

Website Design

When it comes to good website design, there are three principles you need to consider:

• Visual Design (does the website make a good first impression?)
• Usability (is the website easy to use and understand?)
• Objectives (what is the purpose of the website?)

While design trends constantly change, there are basic components of a website that remain universal, including:

• Easy to follow navigation
• Clean and minimalist layout
• Cross platform Compatibility
• Industry-appropriate design

Users shouldn’t need to guess how to find a page within your website. Everything should be clearly organized, with simple menus and navigation features. A clean layout is also recommended. If the page is crowded with information, graphics, and video, it takes longer to load and becomes harder to read. Compatibility is less of a concern, as most sites now use responsive designs that conform to the size of the user’s screen. However, thorough testing is often needed to ensure that elements load properly on different devices. The visual appearance of the website is a subjective detail, as everyone has their own tastes. Regardless, you need a design that is appropriate for the industry.

Let’s Discuss about the points that makes a website looks bad.

• Websites Without a Clear Message
• Too Many Elements Cluttering the Page
• Pages with No Mobile Optimization
• Lack of Simple Navigation and Links
• Unreadable Text or Un-clickable Buttons
• A homepage that is too flashy and busy.
• Improper usage of colors.
• Lengthy unorganized content.
• Illegible fonts
• Colored/Underlined text that is not a link,
• Paragraphs in all caps/bold/italic.
• Endless scrolling.
• Useless Website Junk & Clutter
• Broken Links

“When someone visits your website they should feel welcomed. They should feel like they are at home.”

Summary

Let’s sum it up. The core difference between good and bad websites lays in visual appeal, consistency and ability to help companies achieve business goals.

Visual appeal

A good website has a clear structure, easy-to-use navigation, and non-distracting design, while a bad website makes you feel confused or even annoyed.

Consistency

A good website matches a company’s philosophy and tone of voice and sends only one message with each element. On the contrary, bad websites give a mixed impression and look like they’ve been put together out of a few different sources.

Ability to help you achieve business goals

A good website brings leads, builds company image, raises search engine ratings, and helps companies achieve other targets. Conversely, bad websites just exist out there and don’t bring any good to the business.

Good and bad design: 20 examples of products, System and Service

In an attempt to understand and illustrate what makes your experience good or bad, I analyzed few examples of Product, Website, app and services which I use in my daily life where I will tell you about my personal experience with some examples of products. Pretty sure you’ll also relate to some of them!

“Bad design is simply great imagination without wisdom”- M.Cobanli

1. Punch hole and notch Display

Source: Gizbot

Most of you have these type of screen in your phones. I don’t know about others but I really feel distracted while watching movies. They just ruin the overall viewing experience. I hope Under display solutions will be new trend setter in near future.

2. Grip gear shifter in Cycles

If ever used gear cycles with this Grip shifter Only then You can feel my discomfort. The biggest disadvantage to grip shifters isn’t immediately obvious, but when your hands get sweaty or your gloves get wet, shifting becomes nearly impossible without applying extreme force. It also causes pain and scratches in the hand. So this is the example of bad design in terms of Performance and usability.

3. Regular Umbrella

I am enlisting this as bad design because now we have alternate solution that has better functionality and usability. We all know that the wind is no friend of the umbrella and wind likes the company of rain. Many times an umbrella has fallen when the wind picks up and utterly destroys it. Imagine you are getting into a car or entering the office-space and your ordinary umbrella has spelt water all over the floor! How embarrassing it is! However, you can get out of this awkward situation when you carry a reversed umbrella.

Want to know more about Reversed Umbrella, here is the video

4. High heels

For ages, women have endured pain and suffering to meet society’s beauty standards. High heels create a shock wave though your body, starting at your feet and traveling up into your spine,” Dr. Baskin says. “They can throw off your posture and gait, and even cause arthritis in the spine.” The most obvious function of clothes is to provide warmth and protection so that wearer look comfortable as well as attractive.

5. Rice lights that gets tangle easily(Bad Design)

All kinds of fairy lights are horribly difficult to untangle without damaging the delicate circuitry, but if a single bulb in a serial-wired string of fairy lights fuses, you are doomed.

When one bulb goes out, it breaks the entire circuit, and you have no way of finding out which one to change. That is, unless you are ready to take up the daunting task of checking every bulb by trial and error. If you have ever tried doing that, I salute your determination!

6. Right handed desks:

This may look normal to you because you are right handed. But what about left handed? When I was in college my friend who was left handed always got furious seeing this. He had to ask for another desk every time. Public Institution where all types of people checked in, should be aware of such design fails. Designers feel his pain, make something that can usable for all.

7. Urinal without divider:

Imagine You go to public washroom and you see this. I can guarantee that you often have find this in your life. For girls its normal but only boys can see that there are only 3 urinals. What’s the point of having many urinals, if it can facilitate only few. Designer should place divider in between.

8. LPG gas cylinder:

If you belong to typical Indian family then you would have encountered this situation, being a young member of family it’s your responsibility to carry around to the kitchen. I always think why there is no wheel. Nowadays even huge appliances come equipped with wheel.

9. USB port:

I don’t know about you, but I can rarely plug in a male USB into my laptop on the first try. Usually, I have to flip it around thrice before it’ll go in! I think some minor improvement is needed regarding usability.

10. ATMs That Return Cards After Dispensing Cash:

People visit ATMs for one purpose: withdrawing cash. Once the cash has been dispensed, they are in a hurry to leave. So, people are more likely to forget their cards at the ATM while using such machines. This incident happened to me once and I had to lose my card.

“Bad design shouts at you, Good design is the silent seller.”- Shane Meendering

Good Examples

Let take some good design examples. Great designs are all around us but we only need to find and appreciate it. Some of you may find these as bad design but that ok, design is subjective.

1. Our human body:

The human body, in itself, is a brilliant design. Look at all of the things we can do: move, think, move and think, recall memories/events. And beneath the surface lies a network of blood, cells, microbes, liquids, and neurons that no scientist, no matter how intelligent they are, has been able to reproduce. On addition to that our body has immune system that fights with diseases and heals itself.

2. Inflatable Air bed and mattress:

Our bed is an important part of your life. Air bed has more added function. We spend a third of our lives asleep, so it is not surprising that our time slumbering can have a big impact on our waking life. But no body appreciates this as a good design. It is indeed a good design. It has one evident purpose and it serves well to us. Even alien would know its function.

3. Shoes:

Shoes are the foundation of every outfit and example of good design. They allow a person to move safely and comfortably on unforgiving surfaces, protect the foot from the elements, and add that final statement of panache. Shoes were there from very long times. Of course material and appearance has changed but function still remains same.

4. Flyover :

Flyover help to streamline the traffic control system by helping to reduce traffic congestion. Research shows that roundabouts reduce fatal and injury accidents by as much as 76%, due to slower speeds and the existence of fewer conflict points. So they fulfil their purpose and make it great design.

5. Google search engine:

A digital product that we use every day. It is the most simple and fastest tool ever created. It doesn’t require a tutorial or a tooltip. So this is definitely an example of good UI/UX design. Clean and minimalistic design. Google was founded in way back in 1998. The product has always been like this, and it seems like it will only get easier, simpler, and faster in time.

6. Fully adjustable Monitor

If you are working IT professional, Designer or who spends Hours in front of PC then you can relate to this. Sitting for long in front of Monitor can expose you to the risk of developing physical strain and overuse injuries. Hence fully adjustable monitor comes to ease our problem. You can adjust it as per your need and convenience. That why I categorized it into good design.

7. Baggy pants

These are also called Hoppers. These are loose-fitting and comfy outfits. These are designed for universal fitting. So anyone can wear it without worrying about sizes. These are Perfect of every occasion too. You can Jog, Exercise and roam outside wearing these outfits. I have been using since one month and I must say these are really comfortable and usable for every activity.

8. Dual Bucket Spin Mop

You must have seen these tools in some household. Easy to use and super efficient cleaning makes it a good design. Whoever designed it, know the pain and struggle of cleaning the house by hand.

9. Partitioned Plate

Common cutlery found in every Indian household. Partitioned plate has multiple advantages. The walls of partitions in divided plates help the user push food onto a spoon. They also provide more leverage when sticking food with a fork. Divided plates give you an edge when scooping rolling peas or sticking tricky, tangled noodles. Divided plates also keep food separate. That’s why it deserves a place in good design.

10. Apple homepage

Last but not the least I would like to mention that apple design team is quite succeeded to grab user’s attention towards their product from very long. It is a example of Good UI/UX design. Every thing on a page is easy to read, easy to navigate and visually pleases the visitor.