Design Diary Entry – Week Ten and Eleven

Have you ever used a product and thought it seemed obvious? I’m not talking about a part or feature that stands out so much that it gets in the way, I’m talking about the features that are naturally easy to use. Odds are you haven’t noticed many of them (if you have, hats off to you). But we actually come in contact with so many of these natural solutions on a daily basis, taking them for grated day after day. However, the features that are ‘clever’ yet stand out and get in the way were invented by designers who loved their solution so much, they wanted you to notice and thus, defeated the original purpose of creating a solution. The things that work well, the features are the perfect size in the perfect place are easy to disregard because they just work. They don’t need a second glace. It’s the things that don’t work that get our attention.

The most obvious and simplest solutions seem like they would be the most obvious and simple to arrive upon, but actually, those are the hardest to find. It’s sort of a catch-22; the answers that are the hardest seem the easiest but, the easiest don’t get noticed. The reason why it is so hard is because the focus is not on the product, as it would seem rather, the focus is on everything BUT the product; the environment, the people, the connection. That means there isn’t a single factor, there are infinite factors. The designer’s job is to determine which are the most important in order to allow the object to function as a solution to the problem at hand. And oftentimes it is hard to remove the self, the ego, from the equation. After all, we are pouring our heart and soul into these things. How to give yourself credit by making that simple solution stick out? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. A personal touch without personal opinions hindering the performance or reception of the object is a hard thing to come by.

There was an idea in Sweden, late in the 19th century, that design could be a catalyst for social transformation. That the products that are available for consumption could inform and influence; to raise awareness. I believe now is the time for us to realize that again. To consider, more deeply, the messages sent by the products that exist. The consumer product landscape, from advertising to the products themselves, has been a naturally evolving monster. It was not a plan. Who would have known that an agenda of a corporation could hold so much sway over the opinion of the masses? That a giant brand name plastered an the side of anything could be a selling point? Convince the people that they need it and you’ve got yourself a business model. But why can’t we use that for good? Acknowledge and design for the fact that we are animals with instincts, instead of silently capitalizing the fact? Encourage the good rather than exploiting the bad. Whatever happened to social responsibility? To be honest, transparent and up front? Honesty and integrity, that’s what I wish to put into this world.

Codee Adams
Product Designer
Runius Design AB