Using Design to Dissect Objects

WHO IS DIETER RAMS?

Dieter Rams is known as one of the most influential industrial designers of the last 50 years. He's transformed the way designers think about creating products, lead by his core belief that "good design can only come from understanding people. This belief would eventually lead tot his 10 Principles of Good Design. His whole career he's talked about putting an end to wastefulness and the importance of preserving the earth's natural resources.

"Less but better." or, in his native tongue, "Weniger, aber besser." This was a phrase that not only inspired his own work but many other's in the design realm. In the 80's he tried to create a method for people to follow for design that imbued this mantra. This is where the 10 Principles for Good Design originated from.

WHAT ARE THE 10 PRINCIPLES OF GOOD DESIGN?

With these 10 Principles, designers are able to ask a set of questions as they develop and create a product. This allows for readjusting if necessary, and provides an outline for new or aspiring designers.

Today, I'm going to give an example of how you'd apply these 10 principles to a product, by analyzing my Samsung Galaxy Smart Buds.

ANALYZING THE SAMSUNG GLAXY BUDS USING THE DIETER RAMS PRINCIPLES

The object I decided to observe and apply Dieter’s 10 principles of good design to were my Samsung Galaxy+ Smart Buds, Special BTS Edition. These are an item I use daily, whether it’s biking to work or working on an assignment. I thought it would be fitting to assess an object I use daily.

The first principle for a good design is that it is innovative. I think that my Samsung Smart Buds are innovative; they’re wireless like the Air Pods but have a much more comfortable feel and design. It also has this cool feature where if you tap one of the buds 3 times, it’ll go back a track.

The next principle calls for having the product be useful. As I mentioned above, I use these Smart Buds every day. I used to have regular earbuds with cords, but I’d constantly get them caught and ripped out of my ears whenever I was in my kitchen, because of how the handles are on the drawers. This drove me nuts and caused my phone to break at one point. Now that I have these wireless buds I can walk around in my kitchen without worry.

My Samsung Galaxy Smart Buds are a beautiful purple and black color. It’s simplistic and visually pleasing, I personally like that they’re not all black since I tend to lose black earbuds the most often.

The fourth principle of good design is that the product is understandable. I will say, this product was a lot to unpack. It came with a wireless charger, a regular charger, the smart buds, the smart buds' holder as well as a protective case for the holder. There was a lot of packaging and papers. But once it came to the setup and use, it was very easy. As soon as the case opens, my earbuds sync to my phone (if I have Bluetooth enabled). This makes It easy to just pop in earbuds as soon as I need to. No need to hassle with connecting! There’s even an app to download in order to adjust settings (ambient mode, base, etc.).

“Good design is unobtrusive” this is what the 5th principle states, I believe this too is true of my Samsung Smart Buds. They're small and like I said before, have a comfortable design which allows them to stay in your ears well. The case protector it comes with has a keychain loop so you can tether it to your pants, or keys. But they’d just as easily fit in a pocket or purse!

I believe the design to be honest. It has straightforward instructions, and the advertisements for it pointed out the features that I find myself liking the most.

Is durable. I’ve probably mentioned this several times, but the case that contains them – as well as charges them- came with a protector. I’ve dropped it several times on tile floor, and there hasn’t even been a single scratch or crack on it (if I were to drop my phone with a protector on those floors I’d probably still end up with a small scuff on the case). Therefore, I believe their design to be durable

I’m not quite sure whether the Smart buds are Thorough down to the last detail. In my eyes they seem to be, but there may be something I’m missing that either didn't’ need to be included in the design or was crucial and had been left out. But from my perspective and experience I’m going to say that it does fit this principle as well.

I believe these to be eco-friendly for 2 reasons; 1. they are rechargeable and durable and can hook up to any Samsung phone that’s able to download and run the app associated with it, so unless there’s a wiring issue there’s no need to throw them away or get them replaced. 2. wired headphones have a short life before they need to get trashed. Even the nice $30 ones last for only up to a year. If you take good care of your Samsung Smart Buds, they can last you years, possibly decades (given that any phone upgrades you get are Samsung and will still be compatible with the buds).

As far as design, overall, it’s very simplistic. The case is a metallic deep purple with a small black symbol in the middle. The inner case is just carved out for the earbuds, and labels L and R underneath where the buds are placed. The buds themselves are very sleek and curved in shape. On top of each bud is a small purple heart, only visible to those who would be standing right above you.

CONCLUSION

As you can see, even with applying the Dieter Ram's Principles of Good Design, not all products have to have all 10 Principles, but most good products will have at least 5 of the Principles. You can apply these principles of design to any object you see, as well as use it while creating a product. This is a very useful tactic for creating good functional design as well as following a minimalist approach.

Even if you're not interested in the realm of Design, finding an object and applying dissecting it according to the Dieter Rams Principles, it can give you a new found respect or gratefulness for the objects in your everyday life.