Playbook for Business Designers
In the physical world design affordances vary from the implict to explicit. In the virtual it’s all has to be implied with references to known cues.
Record. Speed. On/Off. Button. Twist. Turn. Click.
Think about how ‘pull to refresh, pinch or swipe’ are now mapped onto our lexicon of usage. The most common virtual affordances thankfully maintain physical references. Think of it as the compass for our perceptual understanding.
These are a few of the quotes from Dieter Rams. For those of you unaware of his work, put it this way, Jonathan Ive (Head of Industrial Design at Apple) is often mistaken for his work. Which is a nice way of admiring the sensibility of Rams.
Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design helps us to understand a product.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is durable.
Good design is consequent to the last detail.
Good design is concerned with the environment.
Good design is as little design as possible.
Back to purity, back to simplicity.
As head of design at Braun, the German consumer electronics manufacturer, DIETER RAMS emerged as one of the most influential industrial designers of the late 20th century by defining an elegant, legible, yet rigorous visual language for its products.
