Good design

“Limit everything to the essential but do not remove the poetry.”

— Dieter Rams, quoted in Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams

We learned the hard way that new products are hard enough to figure out, and we should make as many things as familiar as possible. Again, life and new products are hard enough. When you can use a familiar term instead of being original, do so. Never opt for a solution that is more creative but less effective.

He is quoted as stating that "Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the one and only cardinal sin in design.

Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible