The Balancing Act: What Makes a Great Design
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9 Design Function Cost Design So where does this leave us? If a product makes sense to use, can easily be incorporated into our lives, is affordable to purchase and is worth the investment, then we must have a great design, right? Unfortunately, no. We are still missing one crucial piece. Function and cost alone are the two practical sides of a design. The third and equally important element is the aesthetics of the design itself—what it looks like. Trends come and go, but at the heart of a good design are timeless qualities of simple proportion and beauty. In the world of building, function and cost alone create shelter, but design creates architecture. The Balancing Act in Use— It is easy to accommodate any two of these three factors at one time. The trick is finding the balancing point for all three. An item can be functional and affordable, yet look awful. Alternatively, it can be affordable and look great, but not work at all. Or, finally, it can function and look great but be prohibitively expensive. The most valuable designs are those that function (make sense), are affordable (obtainable to purchase) and look great. This is the goal of all good design. Sometimes the best “kitchen gadget” is a triedand- true butcher’s knife because it functions well. Very often cost dictates our decision to make a purchase. Function and cost appeal to the brain; design aesthetics appeal to the heart. This is what makes someone fall in love with a product. W h a t M a k e s a G R E A T D e s i g n ? Design is everywhere. It touches almost every aspect of our lives. From our clothes to our cell phones, everything we encounter has been designed to some degree. To understand what makes a great building or community design, it is helpful to look at what makes a successful product design. People will pay a premium for good design. But why are some designs and products better than others? Successful designs, regardless of the type of product, all share the successful balance of three elements— Function, Cost and Design. Funct ion First and foremost, does the design work for the intended purpose? Is it easy to understand and use? And will it hold up over time? At the heart of good design is common sense. Many products on the market today are affordable and look “cool.” Yet the excitement lasts only as long as it takes to get home and realize that your newest kitchen gadget takes 10 times longer to chop veggies than a good old-fashioned knife, takes three times as long to clean and requires a special storage spot in your cabinet. What looked brilliant on TV has failed you because it stops short of the first element necessary for a great design—function. Looks and cost aside, if the product doesn’t work in practice, it cannot be considered a good design. Cost Successful products are not only affordable enough to purchase,—they make sense financially over time,—either by being affordable to maintain, by appreciating in value, or both. (Note: Affordable does not mean cheap; it means something that one can realistically purchase. The specific definition of affordable is different for everyone.) As consumers, when we shop for products we look for the best quality possible at a good price. Although few of us have unlimited budgets, making price a factor to some degree, we also see again and again that people will pay a premium for good products. But they only do so when they know that the investment will be rewarded over time. In the case of technology, owning a useful tool that helps in our daily lives rewards our investment. In the case of a house, we expect the investment to appreciate over time. Items that are expensive to purchase, and either quickly lose value or cost a great deal to maintain, are less likely to be successful in the marketplace. 8 VALUE Function Cost Design T h e B a l a n c i n g A c t

11 Successful Product Designs - From the iPod™ to method® cleaning products, some brands stand above others because of their successful balancing of Function, Cost and Design. For instance, in the automotive industry, gas mileage has become the determining factor in car sales. I n d u s t r y t o I n d u s t r y : W h a t M a k e s a S u c c e s s f u l P r o d u c t D e s i g n 10 Design matters. Design makes the difference between a product that is purely functional and one that is truly successful. Most industries seem to have design in hand, be it fashion, technology or automotive. Even...

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