Good Design

Gary Hustwit has produced an interesting documentary about the relationship behind design of our everyday objects and the people who create them. We deliberate emphatically about the design of SambaJAM so that it works for our users and it is inspiring to listen to the designers in the documentary discuss their own ideas and design principles.

Watching the documentary I reflected on our own challenges to make SambaJAM have broad appeal and deliver its purpose. We aim to make SambaJAM intuitive and productive to use. We want to make using a web application a rewarding experience as users interact with our system to carry out their everyday work.

Our design challenges balance what’s possible now, with performance, yet we continually strive to push out the best even when faced with hurdles of code and problems to solve, its what we love doing.

In the documentary Dieter Rams provides a great sound bite regarding the things that design should be, noted as the ten commandments of design.

1. Good design is innovative
2. Good design makes a product useful
3. Good design is aesthetic
4. Good design makes a product understandable
5. Good design is unobtrusive
6. Good design is honest
7. Good design is long lasting
8. Good design is thorough, down to the last detail
9. Good design is environmentally friendly
10. Good design is as little design as possible

From one designer to another. The Royal Academy of Arts is hosting Anish Kapoor exhibition in London. His creations have overwhelming appeal for people. This is a guy who seems to know, naturally, what people enjoy visually experiencing. If there was a designer we wish to reflect in capturing engagement and openess of SambaJAM it would be him.