Upset by Bad Design or Inspired by Good Design

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A lot of design writings are based in the "mantra" that the world is filled by bad and terrible designs and we need to change that. I do not like that approach to design. To me it often (not always) implies that good design is both possible and almost easy to do. Good design is possible, I agree with that, but design is far from easy. The world is not filled by bad designs because people do not care or do not try. There are bad designs all around us because good design is difficult. I am much more fascinated by the fact that, despite the difficulty of design, good designs can also be found all round. It is amazing how often good designers are able to come up with designs that defy the complexity and difficulty of the challenge at hand. So, let us be inspired by good designs and let them prove to us that amazing design is possible. Even in the most restricted design situation, the design space is (relatively) infinite. Within this space there are opportunities and risks to come up with a bad or good design. Great designers are those who surprises us all with a wonderful design when we thought the situation did not lend it self to any possible good designs.

Comments

Richie said…
Several years ago, I talked with some students about making a counter-site to http://www.baddesigns.com/ Basically a blog which people use to post examples of design which they've found particularly well thought out. I know everyone has some device/site/software etc which they constantly think "Wow, that's really nicely done." If only some grad student with nothing better to do would put this together :-).
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 9:32:00 AM
Erik Stolterman Bergqvist said…
Hi Richie

I agree! I also agree that some grad student should do this!

Erik
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 11:25:00 AM
Balakrishna Chennupati said…
Dan Norman had one such list: http://www.jnd.org/GoodDesign.html
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 5:03:00 PM
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