Dieter Rams: Principle 2
Principle 2: Good design makes a product useful
As was discussed in “Dieter Rams: Principle 1”, Rams was educated with a functionalist perspective. Rams worked primarily in industrial design (the design of objects). He started his career working in interior architecture and, at one point, designed a master plan for the Braun campus, but the majority of his design effort was focused on the design of objects. The principle that good design makes a product useful seems self explanatory; however, it is a design principle that is often overlooked by the average consumer.
A beautiful looking coffee maker that makes bitter, bad coffee is a bad design. Ultimately, the coffee maker does not fulfill the purpose for its creation. We often interact with objects that are not useful and find ways of justifying their unusefulness to ourselves. This situation occurs because we interact with objects that perform multiple functions, so we are willing to compromise usefulness in some areas in order to have function in another area. Your cell phone is an example of an object that has the functionality of a phone, calculator, web browser, wireless telegraph (text message), stereo system, etc. Few people begrudge a cell phone that is not perfect as a compass or takes less than perfect pictures because it performs across so many different functions. However, if you have a pen that stops writing you are quick to discard it because a pen is supposed to write.
Technological advancement has started to create objects that are jacks of all trades, but masters of none. As objects evolve and are embedded with more functions disparate from the object’s initial purpose of existence, we will become more willing to tolerate performance issues. The refrigerator may be able to tell you the weather outside, but should it? Does it matter if the refrigerator can tell you the weather if it can’t keep your food cold?
As a consumer, you should demand useful objects that perform a task with little effort. As our world becomes more hectic, connected, and cluttered, a consumer should demand objects that are useful. Useful objects are unobtrusive (Principle 5) while performing a task. Without function, the design of objects is art. The objects will be beautiful to look at, but will fulfill no useful purpose.