13. Good Design is timeless.

If you can make something that appeals to people today and would have also appealed to people in 1500, then there is a good chance it will appeal to people in 2500

A wooden spoon found on board the 16th century carrack Mary Rose.

A rare Mughal gem-set gold spoon, India , 17th-18th century.

Spoon,Yurok (Native American), 19th century, Brooklyn Museum.

Spoons of today: The taste of India. [ Photo by Calum Lewis on Unsplash ]

After receiving feedback on the article, I felt I need to talk about how we have brought timelessness to Application design. I am sure you must have observed icons such as share, delete or save buttons remain consistent over different applications be it on mobile/web. They will continue to remain more or less invariable in the distant future too.

Share icon on Google Photos

Share icon on Facebook

Share icon on Reddit

The reason being as an Application developer, one wouldn’t want the users to have a steep learning curve to be able to use the application. At my previous startup where I was working, we did not shy away from designing our application taking the good parts from Facebook design to help users understand the platform.

12. Good Design solves the right problem.

Paul Graham, author of the essay has a very interesting take on this idea with a beautiful example, which is:

“A typical stove has four burners arranged in a square and a dial to control each. How do you arrange the dials ? The simplest answer is to put them in a row. But this is a simple answer for the wrong question. The dials are for humans to use and if you put them in a row, the unlucky human will have to stop and think each time about which dial matches which burner. Better to arrange the dials in square like the burners or otherwise arrange the burners in a row to match the dials.”

Bad design ❌

Good design ✔️

11. Good Design is suggestive.

A good code should be read like a story, not like a puzzle

“In math and science, it means a proof or theory that becomes the basis for a lot of new work and also leads to future discoveries.”

Discovery of the Atom

“A painting that suggests is usually more engaging than one that tells. Everyone makes up their own story about the Mona Lisa.”

10. Good Design is often slightly funny.

A good code is like a good joke. Writing comments is like explaining the joke.

Aren’t you amused when you land on some web pages which do not actually exist ?

To have a sense of humor is to be strong. [ Credits: Slack and it’s designers ]

404 error 💀 [ Credits: Agens ]

9. Good Design is hard.

Let me tell you a story about Picasso to help you understand the above idea.

One fine morning Picasso is sitting in the park, sketching.

A woman walks by, recognizes him, runs up to him and pleads with him to draw her portrait. He’s in a good mood, so he agrees and starts sketching.

A few minutes later, he hands her the portrait. The lady is ecstatic, she gushes about how wonderfully it captures the very essence of her character, what beautiful, beautiful work it is, and asks how much she owes him.

“$5,000, madam”, says Picasso.

The lady is taken aback, outraged, and asks how that’s even possible given it only took him 5 minutes.

Picasso looks up and, without missing a beat, says:

“No, madam, it took me my whole life!”

Good design is indeed hard and takes rigorous practice and time.