There are many standards for measuring the quality of a product, but the ultimate standard for judging it should be: what method does it use, for whom, and what value does it create?
What exactly is a good design? The famous German industrial designer Dieter Rams once put forward the “Ten Principles of Good Design” as follows:
- Innovative
- Makes a product useful
- Can bring beauty (Aesthetic)
- Makes a product understandable
- Unobtrusive
- Loyal to the product (Honest)
- Long-lasting
- Pay attention to every detail (Is thorough down to the last detail)
- Environmentally friendly,
- The less the better (Is as little design as possible)
The above criteria illustrate the common characteristics of good design from multiple perspectives. In my opinion, a good design must be a “value output” completed on the basis of an in-depth understanding of requirements . The author’s further understanding is:
- The source of good design is “insight into requirements” to clearly define the problem.
- The output of a good design is a “practical solution.”
- The thinking process of a good design is a process from “analysis of problems” to “value output”. This process should be diverse and focused.
But no matter how many dimensions the definition of good design has, all products must finally answer an ultimate question:
Who does the product create value for?
- You may ask what problem the product solves the user?
- What value does the product create for users?
- What value does the product create for the stakeholders of the product?
- How to realize more value?
…
Let’s review the “Ten Principles of Good Design”. All of them are standards for creating value.
A few cases
Case 1:
UBER is a global instant car software. UBER aims to bring users a safer and more comfortable way to travel and make the city more convenient and faster. UBER has now entered more than 60 cities in mainland China, and has covered more than 400 cities in more than 70 countries worldwide.
So what value does UBER create for whom in the design of products and business models?
First, UBER solves the inefficiency caused by the mismatch between driver and passenger information . In the era when the driver cannot find the passenger, the passenger cannot find the driver. Due to the mismatch of information between the two parties, drivers have to waste gas and time to wait, and passengers have to delay time to find a car, resulting in high transaction costs for taxis.
Second, it solves the problem of less than demand in the taxi market . The supply of the original taxi market was less than the demand, and a large number of private cars were idle in the car owners’ homes. UBER uses private cars and part-time drivers in their free homes to provide passengers with car rental services, which solves the problem of uneven supply and demand in the car rental market.
In addition, the way of carpooling also solves the problem of low per capita passenger capacity of passenger cars . Using computer processing, reasonable planning of driving routes, carpooling for users, increasing the number of passengers carried in each car, reducing the operating cost of taxis, and so on…
UBER not only provides users with a convenient, fast and economical way to travel, but as a phenomenon-level product, it objectively promotes the development of the global sharing economy. Therefore, we see that from a value perspective , UBER’s product and business model design has created a huge amount of value for passengers, taxi drivers, private car owners, and part-time drivers. Therefore, we think UBER is a good design.
Case 2:
Let’s look at another design: railway ticket vending machine.
The picture above is an automatic ticket vending machine on a Chinese railway. What I want to talk about here is the blue second-generation ID card induction area on the right . Trains are an important way of travel in China, and every train ticket requires a citizen’s personal ID to purchase, and the ID must be checked when entering the station. The special feature of this induction zone is that the place where the ID card is placed has a slope . If you don’t hold the ID card with your hands, it will slide down and you will not be able to read the card smoothly. Every ticket buyer has to curse this “stupid” design while freeing up a hand to hold his ID card. So far, it seems to show you a bad design.
But imagine, if you put the card in a flat place, a train rusher hurriedly bought a ticket, and when he looked at his watch, he was going to be late and hurried away. ——As a result, the ID card fell!
You know, in China, if the ID card is gone, it is extremely inconvenient to travel. In the eyes of the designer of this device, compared with the passengers’ need not to lose their ID cards, the need to put the cards without holding them is simply not enough. Is there any other way? Maybe there is a gravity sensor under the horizontal sensor. Once the ticket is purchased and the card is still on the device, the machine can play the voice “Hey! Comrade, you forgot to take your ID card!” But this solution obviously requires Adding new costs, and whether it can achieve the desired effect in a noisy environment is still a question mark.
This design uses the least cost and naturally and unobtrusively prevents passengers from losing the most important documents. It not only pays attention to the scenarios that may occur when the user uses the device , but also creatively solves the problem with such a simple method. Users don’t even notice that they use the designer’s original design.
As for what is a bad design , if you observe carefully, you will find that there are actually many “stupid” designs in our world. For example, a USB port that you don’t know how to plug it in or out; for example, you don’t know which door you should push or pull; another example is the pull tab of a “cheating” can, which may break your nails every time you pull it… To be sure, when these products were designed, they did not seriously consider the actual use scenarios and needs of users . If the designer really puts himself in the position to consider the user, after thinking about what the user needs and what value the product reflects for the user, it may be difficult to come up with a poor design. for example:
Figure 1 USB cable of “Hammer” mobile phone
The USB cable of the “Hammer” mobile phone brand is designed with a bump on the outer side of the USB interface and a pit on the other side. Although the user may plug it in the wrong way for the first time, when he uses it several times, he will feel the touch. The user does not need to remember which side corresponds to which side, but he has the ability to plug in the USB with the feeling of hand and eyes closed. This design cannot be said to be exquisite, it is so simple and effective. But how many USB manufacturers have done this? Do they really don’t know that users will be upset by this?
Therefore, when we are measuring whether a product or function is a good design, the first question to ask is:
In what way, for whom, and what value does it create?
