Reframing design problems

Designers do not only make things; they judge whether things are worth making. Those judgements rest on conceptions of good design, and the study design is blunt that such notions are personal, contextual and political. What counts as good depends on who is judging, where and when the design is used, and whose interests it serves.

Your first task in Outcome 1 is therefore to collect several conceptions, test them against real examples from different design fields and evolve your own.

Past conceptions are often tied to a named designer or movement. Vitsœ relates Dieter Rams’ questioning of good design to the late 1970s and presents his ten principles as the resulting conception. In summary, a good product is innovative, useful and aesthetically resolved; it explains itself, stays in the background, is honest about what it does, lasts, is thorough in its details, treats the environment with care and relies on as little design as possible.

Present conceptions are frequently expressed as award or competition criteria. Good Design Australia’s awards, for example, ask broadly whether a design works well for the people who use it, whether it is innovative and what impact it has on people, business and the environment, while the Victorian Government Architect’s Good Design series argues for the public value of well-designed places. Compare a named competition and its dated criteria rather than assuming all competitions share one conception.

Modern criteria can overlap with Rams’ emphasis on usefulness and environmental care; sustainability is not a concern absent from his principles.

Visual language sits inside every one of these judgements. A chair is judged partly on comfort, but a timetable, an app screen or a medicine label also depends on how its pictorial, symbolic and typographic elements are organised: whether type is legible at the real viewing distance, whether intended users understand the symbols in context, whether hierarchy leads the eye to the decision that matters. Visual language should suit purpose, context and audience.

Content accuracy, functionality, physical access and other requirements also matter; appearance alone does not establish overall quality.

Formulating ideas about future good design means asking which qualities will matter more as contexts change: circular use of materials, inclusion of people with diverse abilities and languages, culturally appropriate practice, honest handling of personal data and interfaces that work without instruction. Once you hold a clear conception, it becomes a search tool. Wherever an everyday design fails your criteria for the people who use it, a human-centred design problem is waiting to be found.