Guidelines for good design by Dieter Rams.
Dieter Rams' 10 Principles for Good Design were written as a manifesto for physical products — the iconic Braun radios, Vitsoe shelving, and calculator designs that defined industrial design in the second half of the twentieth century. They've since become one of the most cited guidelines in digital product design, partly because Jonathan Ive openly credited them as the starting point for Apple's aesthetic, and partly because they translate remarkably cleanly from hardware to software.
Rams' principles are less about interaction mechanics and more about design judgement: is the product useful, honest, unobtrusive, long-lasting? Is it as little design as possible? Teams use them to step back from the screen and evaluate the product as a whole — the kind of review that catches gratuitous animation, visual noise, or features that exist for the roadmap's sake rather than the user's.
Pair Rams with Nielsen's heuristics when you want both tactical usability feedback and a strategic design critique in the same evaluation.
The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
It clarifies the products structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.
Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the users self-expression.
It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years - even in today's throwaway society.
Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
Less, but better - because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.
Side-by-side comparison
Dieter Rams' 10 principles vs Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics: where they overlap, where they don't, and which to use for a UX audit. With Heurio.
Side-by-side comparison
Dieter Rams' 10 design principles ask whether an object is good; Don Norman's 6 principles diagnose whether users understand it. Side-by-side, with Heurio.
Side-by-side comparison
Dieter Rams' 10 principles audit a designed object's character; Shneiderman's 8 golden rules guide how to design interactive systems. Side-by-side, with Heurio.
See it in action
Click anywhere on a real page, drop a heurio, pick the Dieter Rams' 10 rule it violates. No screenshots, no Loom, no separate doc.
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