September 11, 2019

Good design makes a product useful

“A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic criteria. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could detract from it.”  Dieter Rams, Design principle number 2.

I have a favourite fork.  It’s an old silver-plated one I bought second hand, years ago.   There is something about the weight of it, the way it balances in the hand, the length and elegance of the tines, that makes me seek it out whenever I want to eat paella or pasta.

Like my old cast-iron griddle, that makes pancake-making as much of a pleasure as pancake-eating, my favourite fork makes eating paella even more enjoyable.

The usefulness of any product, tool or process, can’t be just ‘Will it do the job?’, it has to be ‘Will it make me glad I have to do this job?’.