Dieter Rams’ ten principles to “good design”

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 long-lasting
Good design is consequent to the last detail
Good design is concerned with the environment
Good design is as little design as possible

From Good Design is as Little Design as Possible on Yatzer.  Was struck by how much that applies to software design.  Not just to the UI but also to code.

- Peace

Recycling UI

A shot of two Recycling bins in our office.  What goes in the bin on the Left?  What goes in the bin on the right?  I find that I often put the wrong thing on the left and have to pull stuff back out, yuck. Yesterday it dawned on me as to why, the UI on the left is broken, the important information follows redundant information.  The first word on the left is Recycling, under the large recycling logo on a blue bin.  I hit the redundant information and stop reading.

The bin on the right gets it right, the important guard clause is the first thing you read.  Well done.

All this to say that good design is hard even with something as simple as office recycle bins.  And UI/UX design applies even to simple documentation.  So hug a designer or tech writer today, their work is hard.

- Peace