MENTAL MODEL · M13097

Ten Principles of Good Design

SystemsHigh supportDesign Studies

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Updated 2026-08-13

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INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

Formulated by the German industrial designer Dieter Rams, who led design at Braun from 1961 to 1995. Rams set out the principles in the 1970s as a critique of the state of industrial design, and they became widely known under the title Ten Principles for Good Design. The list states that good design is innovative, makes a product useful, is aesthetic, makes a product understandable, is unobtrusive, is honest, is long-lasting, is thorough down to the last detail, is environmentally friendly, and involves as little design as possible. Rams summarised the set with the phrase less, but better, treating the principles as a test of whether a design earns its place rather than as a recipe for producing one.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Reviewing work: Run a design past each principle in turn and record pass or fail together with the evidence. - Cutting scope: Use the as-little-as-possible principle to justify deleting elements that only add decoration. - Setting standards: Agree with a team which principles are non-negotiable before production begins.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

The ten principles convert the vague goal of good design into discrete, checkable dimensions, so a review stops being a contest of taste. Asking in turn whether a product is useful, understandable, honest and durable forces hidden trade-offs into the open: ornament that adds nothing surfaces as a failure of unobtrusiveness or of thoroughness. Because the criteria are independent, a design can pass some and fail others, which lets a team locate the specific defect instead of rejecting the whole concept.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Practice this model in one real situation:

Score the current design against each of the ten principles and write the evidence for every score. 2. For each failure, change one thing only and state which principle the change restores. 3. Remove one element that exists only to look richer, then check whether usability drops. 4. Revisit the product after a few months and retest the durability and unobtrusiveness judgements.

Check to track your progress (stored locally)

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Source support: Explicit

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en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Rams#Ten_Principles_for_Good_designZH · Explicit
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