Dieter Rams was an industrial designer, probably most well known from his work designing Braun items in the mid-to-late 20th century.
It’s been speculated that Apple’s Jonny Ives took heavy inspiration from Braun’s design styles and lessons to create the iconic products that make up our lives today.
Aware that he was a significant contributor to that world, he asked himself an important question: is my design good design? To help others answer the same question, Rams created 10 principles for good design, including:
- Good design makes a product useful
- Good design is aesthetic
- Good design makes a product understandable
- Good design is unobtrusive
- Good design is thorough down to the last detail
- and, my personal favorite: Good design is a little design as possible
Vitsoe has the entire list of 10 principles for good design.