Dieter Rams’ good design principles are so on-point, so beautiful, so simple, so everlasting. According to Rams, good design:
- Is innovative: Design always develops in tandem with improving technology, and can never be an end in itself.
- Makes a product useful: Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could detract from it.
- Is aesthetic: Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
- Makes a product understandable: It can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition.
- Is unobtrusive: Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools; they are neither decorative objects nor works of art.
- Is honest: It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
- Is long-lasting: Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years.
- Is thorough down to the last detail: Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
- Is environmentally friendly: Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment.
- Is as little design as possible: Less, but better. Simple as possible but not simpler.
How many of those Apple follows? It isn’t a trick question, think about it.