3 tips for producing great design

Imagine you have been asked to design something. It could be a workshop, garden, house, furniture, solution, article or whatever. “Great design is simple, satisfying and successful,” we are told. Sounds simple in theory, but it can be hard to achieve in practice. Let’s explore how you can follow these steps for producing great design.

* You can make it simple.

Great teachers make complicated things simple – and so do fine designers. They produce things that are simple, beautiful and effective. Before embarking on your own design project, however, try clarifying your philosophy of design. Different people have different tastes, so think a design that you admire. You make like the original Sony Walkman, the Apple Mac or some other elegant solution. What are the characteristics of the design you admire? Try completing the following sentences.

The piece of design that I admire is:

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The specific things I admire about this piece of design are:

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Let’s move onto the specific thing you want to create - be it a garden, an article, a tool or whatever. Designers begin by asking themselves questions such as:

“What are the real results I want to achieve? Who is the target group who will be using the design? What do they want it to achieve? What are the resources available? What information do I need? How can I gather this information – then boil it down to its essence? How can I design something that works? How can I test it out? How can I improve the design? How can I make it as simple as possible?”

The final point is crucial. William Strunk and E.B.White produced the writer’s bible The Elements of Style, which still used widely today. The book urged writers to ‘keep it simple’. It also included rules such as: ‘Choose a suitable design and hold to it … Put statements in a positive form … Use definite, specific, concrete language … Omit needless words … Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.” Great design is simple, but not ‘simplistic’. Like great teaching, it often contains a ‘profound simplicity’.

Let’s return to the thing you want to produce. How can you clarify the results you want to achieve? How can you collect information? How can you boil it down to its essence? Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can to do to make the design simple are:

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* You can make it satisfying.

Great design is satisfying on a number of levels. Physically – it looks and feels good: practically – it works and is user-friendly; psychologically – it is aesthetically and sensually pleasing. Herman Miller’s famous Aeron chair, for example, embodies many of these elements. The website http://www.designfeast.com provides a massive repertoire of tools, knowledge and ideas that people can use. It also offers an array of quotes on the topic. Here is a selection.

Design is art that makes itself useful.

1984 poster for Die Neue Sammlung, design museum, Munich.

Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don't hesitate to make it beautiful.

Shaker lesson.

One of the main criteria for the design of the everyday, though, is sensuality. Something that is sensual evokes a response that's not just visual or intellectual: It’s suggestive.

Deborah Berke, Principal, Deborah Berke Architect PC.

Let’s return to the piece you want to produce. How can you make it satisfying on different levels? Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can to do to make the design satisfying are:

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* You can make it successful.

Great design works. It does the job. The Amazon web site made it easy for customers to buy books with ‘one click’. First Direct made it easy for people to manage their banking. Terence Conran said: “Good design is probably 98% common sense. Above all, an object must function well and efficiently - and getting that part right requires a good deal of time and attention.” Human beings are designers by nature. They love to follow the process of design, development and deliver. Looking at what you want to produce, try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can to do to make the design successful are:

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Human beings still face many design challenges. Perhaps the most urgent is to build a ‘win-win’ world. This will be one where every person has the physical and psychological opportunities to fulfil their talents. They will then be able to say: “Life has been great. I have done what I was meant to do on Earth.” This calls for adding sustainability to the other design elements. People can continue to add to this spirit by creating things that are simple, satisfying and successful.