Don Norman’s book “The Design of Everyday Things” explores some of the characteristics of good design in chapter 1, focusing on the importance of discoverability and understandability.
When defining discoverability and understandability, Norman poses the following questions: “Is it possible to even figure out what actions are possible and where and how to perform them?…What does it all mean? How is the product supposed to be used? What do all the different controls and settings mean?”.
Design impacts everything we do, from electronic devices to organizational systems of businesses. Norman believes that good design places importance on the interaction between people and the technology being used. When designs are not human-centered and rely too heavily on accuracy and pure logic, things tend to go awry.
Norman writes “It is the machine and design that are at fault. It is the duty of machines and those who design them to understand people. It is not our duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of machines.”. I couldn’t agree more with this sentiment. If engineers and those capable of creating these machines are the only ones who understand how to use these machines then what exactly is the point of creating these products? This surely cannot be classified as universally “good” design.
In fact, I would classify this as a more niche or exclusive design, since it leaves out a large demographic of the population. According to Norman’s writing, great design must be simple, straightforward, and allow for some nuance. Whether it’s nuance in the type of person using the product or nuance in how the product is designed.