10 Principals of Good Design

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> Visualise Dieter Rams 10 Principles of Good Design.

Dieter Rams is a renowned and revolutionary German industrial designer who created products for the likes of Braun and Vitsœ. He followed many beliefs when it came to designing products as a response to the concerning state of the world around him. He described the world as:

“An impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noises.”

Thus, he developed his own ten principals for which he felt constituted good design. This is my interpretation of how some of these principals apply today.

-Innovation

As time goes by and technology advances, I believe it is increasingly challenging to be truly innovative. Rather, we as designers tend to take existing concepts and push them further to create the illusion of innovation. For example; the iPhone was once a ground breaking and innovative piece of unmatched technology but is now at a stage of incremental additions each generation.

-Aestheticism

Aesthetics are purely subjective; something that was considered aesthetically pleasing a decade ago might not be any more or might be by different people. Unfortunately for designers, the way something looks is incredibly important. Trying to shape products that the majority of people find attractive is a challenge due to the varying, subjective nature. Despite of this, there are always general trends and themes that can be applied to each generation and taken advantage of by designers.

-Honesty

It can be hard to tell how honest companies are being when they slap a price tag on their products and send them off – it is probably best not to think too much about this. Dieter Rams believes for a product to be ‘good’ it must be honest. Going back to Apple and their iPhone, it is estimated to cost $247.51 to manufacture each iPhone 8 unit yet they are marketed at $699. I wouldn’t say a difference of $451.49 per unit is truly honest but that all depends on how much you value the quality and style of the product.

Dieter Rams

> Do you feel that these ideas are relevant within Games Design today?

I feel that the ideas of Dieter Rams are from the perspective of someone with passion and good intentions for their industry and the target market. Larger, purely profit based companies tend to skip over some of these principals to maximise profits. In terms of the games design industry, big triple-A companies such as EA and Ubisoft have a reputation for producing formulaic games about similar, reused franchises. For instance, looking at a franchise such as FIFA would show how little innovation is applied to each iteration. The game compromises on some of Rams’ principals; lacking lifespan, simplicity and honesty. Despite this, FIFA has extraordinary sales figure. According to Video Game Sales Wiki, FIFA is the 11th bestselling video game franchise ever.

On the flip side of the gaming industry is the indie games. These games are much more personal and artistic, focusing on the experience of play rather than the profit of sales. I would say that Journey (developed by thatgamecompany) follows much closer to these principals. It’s incredibly simple yet beautifully immersive and emotional; it pushes how games can deliver compelling narrative through only sound and visuals. Keza MacDonald from The Guardian said: “Journey’s visual and sound design sets new standards for interactive entertainment.” Surely this constitutes good design.

Overall, I wouldn’t say that Dieter Rams’ ten principals for good design necessarily apply to the games industry or that they should. They can be applied to some games better than others but that doesn’t correlate to the sales figures. With some slight alterations I’m sure ten principals for good games design could be created but for now we’re left in a world of repetition with the occasional outstanding piece of art.

~ A l e x

Journey

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