World Usability Day 2009

Today is World Usability Day.

We do admit to be being more than a touch sceptical about the motivations that lead people to establish events such as “Global Avocado Day”, “Bulgarian Aramaic Appreciation Week”, or indeed “World Usability Day”, but we can’t help agreeing with the preamble to their charter.
(Without endorsing the charter, per se):

Human error is a misnomer.  Technology today is too hard to use. A cell phone should be as easy-to-use as a doorknob. In order to humanize a world that uses technology as an infrastructure for education, healthcare, government, communication, entertainment, work, and other areas, we must agree to develop technologies in a way that serves people first.

In terms of furniture design we couldn’t agree more and, indeed, in these pages have often argued for clear, defined and properly thought through design.

The work of Charles and Ray Eames, Jasper Morrison, Philippe Starck or Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec wonderfully reflects what can be achieved with the minimum of fuss and unnecessary cleverness.
And so for our contribution to World Usability Day 2009 here are the 10 Design Principles from the doyen of German Industrial Design Dieter Rams:

* Good design is innovative
* Good design makes a product useful
* Good design is aesthetic
* Good design helps us to understand a product
* Good design is unobtrusive
* Good design is honest
* Good design is durable
* Good design is consequent to the last detail
* Good design is concerned with the environment
* Good design is as little design as possible

It’s that simple.

Happy World Usability Day!