First of all, when it comes to design principles, we need to know:
What is design?
Design in the narrow sense: mainly refers to “modern design”, refers to the designer has a plan to carry out technical creation and creative activities. The task of design is not only to serve life and business, but also to create artistic works. Generally speaking, as designers, we use our knowledge, experience and talent to solve problems and achieve goals. This I believe is easier to understand, basically every day to do things.
Design in a broad sense: the human impulse and need to unify and dominate. For example, today you don’t want to ride your bike to work, but take a taxi. Today, I don’t want to cook by myself. Or maybe you don’t want to ride an OFO bike today
1.1 Design is different from art
(Picasso — A Weeping woman)
In fact, there are essential differences between design and art. Art is a one-way expression of artist’s self-emotion. He wasn’t trying to please anyone. Design is to solve problems, with a certain logic; There are many factors to consider: business, demand side, users, etc. He can help improve the user experience and communicate feedback with users. However, sometimes design and art are intertwined, because design is completed by designers using their own professional skills and knowledge, but sometimes some subjective factors such as their own aesthetics, preferences, inspiration and even values are integrated.
I believe that the average designer will have a higher spiritual pursuit after meeting some basic functional requirements. Not only the designers themselves, but also the market itself; We know maslow’s principle, that when people have satisfied their basic needs for food and clothing, they begin to pursue ideological needs. According to the theory of “Emotional design in design psychology”, it can also be understood that when the needs of people’s behavior level are met, they will start to consider the content of the reflective level.
Personally, I think this may be more common in the luxury industry, but I don’t want to talk about it. There are some design competition award-winning works, in fact, has been completely biased towards art, in short, is “do not understand”. (In addition, I feel that my design is gradually moving towards metaphysics: Joy:).
1.2 Why do design need criteria?
Design serves people, especially now the Internet industry has been advocating the design concept of “user-centered”, where the requirements of experience are mentioned to the extreme; Therefore, he will inevitably need certain rules, principles, norms to support; Instead of expressing themselves freely as artists do.
Design without rules would be chaotic and an irresponsible activity. As the saying goes, nothing can be accomplished without rules.
1.3 Benefits of design criteria
1. Can quickly identify goals and directions;
2. To judge whether the design is good or bad, there are traces to follow;
3. Facilitate teamwork and unify design specifications;
1.4 Is the design criterion unique?
Design although need criterion, but his criterion is not unique; But according to specific circumstances, attributes to develop. For example, IOS and Material Design, as well as many other Products of Internet companies, also have their own Design specifications. Different design industries have different design principles.
Of course, there are companies that lead design guidelines (Blue ▽)
Although the design criteria are different, but as the design industry, there are also its general criteria can be directly adopted or reference. For example, ditrams’ ten design principles are well known:
1. Good design is innovative
2. Good design is practical
3. Good design is beautiful
4. Good design makes products easy to understand
5. Good design is careful and restrained
6. Good design is honest
7. Good design is timeless
8. Good design is consistent in every detail
Good design is environmentally friendly
10. Good design is as little design as possible
In fact, when we do Internet design, it can still be used as our usual work requirements and indicators.
Or some psychological principle: gestalt, the 80/20 rule, etc. Can assist our design, let the design more standard, trace to follow.
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Ii. Following are the common design principles summarized by the authors of this book:
2.1 semantics
In design, it means understanding the design subject from all angles and establishing a connection between the design subject and the sender and receiver in a way that is meaningful to both sides. The author considers all elements of a design to have a specific meaning, rather than mystifying and meaningless, which he considers criminal. Similar to functionalism: form follows function. All the elements of our design are like a design language, telling the user what we want him to know.
When we stand on the side of the horizontal handle, most of us will choose to push the door, because the handle is low, so it is not easy to pull. This is about communicating the message we want our users to get through design. On the right, the iphonex, with its recently popular bangs; But he did not intentionally design this, mainly because the head parts are too many, the compromise processing, is also a form to follow the function.
2.2 other law
The syntax of the design is made up of many elements that exist in the project. In graphic design, for example, they are general structure, grids, fonts, text and titles, illustrations, etc. The coherence of the design work is reflected by the appropriate relationship between the relevant elements: how the font on each page relates to the Internet and images throughout, how different font sizes relate to each other, how different images relate to each other, how parts relate to the whole.
When it comes to sentence law, we may have to say the four basic principles of graphic design:
Objective: To enhance effects and organize information
Direct size and color contrast between the title and the body and the suggestive text; Able to intuitively obtain important information and distinguish its importance.
2. Repetition goal: unification
Repetition strengthens the overall sense of our design and makes it more unified. As illustrated in the two series above, the same text size, plank or animal pose is repeated repeatedly to achieve a unified effect.
The goal: Be unified and organized
Be it APP design or poster, you must have a clear alignment, otherwise the picture will look messy and disorganized. The user’s browsing experience will be extremely bad, and it will be difficult to accurately find the information they want to obtain.
The goal: Work in a strong organization
Intimacy in general means that the greater the degree of correlation, the closer the distance; Organization is achieved through distance, for example, the first course cover is closest to the name, followed by its price; “Course” and “category” are two different modules, so the distance is more round. This is often a rule in graphic design, otherwise too much screen information, users will not be able to distinguish whether they are related, whether this piece of content is complete and so on.
I believe that you will have a deeper understanding of him. Regarding these principles, I suggest you read Mr. K’s article, which will be more detailed and professional.
2.3 pragmatics
Our design is based on semantic correctness and syntactic coherence; But if the design is not understood, the whole job is useless. Understanding a project’s starting point and all its limitations is important to fully appreciate its end result and measure its benefits. Clear ideas translate into clear results. Messy, complex designs expose equally messy, complex minds. We love richness, but we hate complexity. Most of the time we do not like too monotonous things, but more hate disorderly design, will make people feel depressed and puzzling.
2.4 suitability
In fact, appropriateness is an exploration of the particularity of any given problem, and defining it can save us from some of the worst things that can happen if we choose the wrong direction. There are many solutions to a problem, many ways of doing it, but the relevance is that the results must be appropriate anyway.
For example: Chestnut: We know the general APP navigation methods are: bottom Tab, list, card type, waterfall flow, nine squares, etc., but these do not say which is the best interaction mode; When we design products, we still need to make a case-by-case analysis and choose the most suitable solution.
2.5 Historical theory and criticism
Without understanding the past, there is no understanding of the present and no conception of the future. We know that there are rules of design, and that theory is part of that rule, and many theories are actually part of history. Design history is important because it provides us with an insight into the triggers associated with artifacts in each period, movement or mode of expression. Only with a deeper understanding of the “why” can we understand the “what” and appreciate them further. Only by understanding the arts and Crafts Movement, art Nouveau movement, Bauhaus and so on can we understand the birth and development of modern design; Understand the origins, theories and tenets of various design styles so that we can use them more accurately rather than mechanically.
In the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, two-thirds of the houses were destroyed. In order to build more houses in the limited downtown, Chicago architects gradually developed a simple high-rise style, and the Chicago School was born. Its characteristics are: the use of steel and other new materials and high-rise frame technology to build skyscrapers. Focusing on the internal function, emphasizing the logical performance of the structure, the facade is simple and clear, and the use of a large number of neatly arranged glass Windows, breaking through the dull feeling of traditional architecture. Its representative figure is Sullivan. As a representative of Schlesinger Department store, he first proposed the slogan “form follows function”, which has become one of the most influential credo of modern design. Knowing this history, it’s easy to accept this design concept.
2.6 The elegance of wisdom
It is the thread that leads us to the best solution of all creative activities, the ultimate goal of our thinking — to go beyond compromise and elevate what is often considered the humblest of man-made objects to a lofty position. It is not a style, but the deepest level of meaning and substance.
I have two interpretations of this maxim: the first sense is to tell the story, to give it spiritual value.
Pictured above is Philip Stark’s alien juicer, which has a lemon head and three long thin spidery feet. Its silver coat makes it look more like an uninvited guest from outer space, landing awkwardly in a corner of the earth, earning it the nickname “alien”. Alessi is said to have sold 550,000 alien juicers between 1990 and 2001 and remains a classic in design stores. However, such a high sales volume does not represent a high use function. From the perspective of practical function, it is not practical. For users of an industrial product, it is mainly to buy practical functions, and users can feel the practical functions of the product from many aspects through physical experience. According to people who have used the device, it doesn’t look good, with lemon juice trickling down the wrist cuff, down the long legs on the table, and into the face, but not quite going into the cup below.
Collecting this product is just like collecting famous paintings and calligraphers. You are paying money and energy for art, so that people around you will feel that you are not an ordinary people, but a person who knows how to enjoy life and understand beauty. On the other hand, when people around you think highly of you because of this, you will have an inflated sense of pride, you will feel that your wealth status, cultural status are at the top, and your vanity will be greatly inflated. (Description from Baidu Wenke)
The second is — “I am not the god of medicine”?
2.7 immutability
We exist for durable design, designed to meet the needs of the people. Instead of following trends, reflect content in an appropriate way. Avoid the waste of energy, the need for temporary solutions, and the need for new capital.
It’s basically the same as Ditrams saying, “Good design is timeless.” We hope to encourage people to design thoughtfully and accurately to solve problems, so that the design will not quickly become outdated or impractical. In fact, even today, the appearance of our phones is still not much different from the iPhone4, except that the screen is bigger, and some phones are still uglier than it.
2.8 the sense of responsibility
This is easy to understand, in fact, no matter do any profession, or as a father, husband need responsibility.
As designers, we need to have three levels of responsibility:
1. For ourselves, take care of the integrity of the project and all its components;
2. To solve problems in an economically sound and effective way for customers;
3. Comprehensive consideration is required for the general public, customers and users of finished products.
With a sense of responsibility, you will gradually gain recognition and support.
2.9 arbitrariness
In fact, arbitrariness can be understood as a reaction to inspiration rather than design rules. He is more perceptual and subjective, transcending rationality and some fixed frames; But freedom is conditional and limited, whereas the opposite is chaotic, disordered and superficial. Commercial design can be a good example of this, thus reinforcing the vulgarity of its presentation. Those uninhibited fantasies will pay off, the more you do, the better, and that’s the nature of commercial design. Business design is more pervasive and in-depth than good design.
In fact, like those “unreasonable” requirements in the picture above, I believe we have come into contact with them, because the demander does not know how to design, so it seems to us that their demands are arbitrary and illogical. At this point, you may need to exert your subjective initiative (Emmmmmm, think of you and think of me).
2.10 the context
Context is a dominant concept in all aspects of design and can be presented in many forms. In architecture, context is the environmental factors around the building. Context in design means the mutual relationship between design and the end goal of the designed object, whether two-dimensional or three-dimensional. Context and appropriateness go hand in hand, and there may be several choices in the same context, but it is important to determine that the primary condition has been met to meet the requirements of the most appropriate solution to the situation, that is, to choose the most semantically correct solution. It is essential to realize that content can be interpreted and translated in creative ways. Imitation is the kiss of death for any type of design.