Timeless Design Principles

• Slow Design 
  Creating a product that drives a true connection with a person requires thoughtfulness and a relentless obsession.  It requires craftsmanship.  Magic takes time, magic takes craftsmanship.
  
  
• Good Design is Innovative 
  The possibilities for innovation are not by any means exhausted.  Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design, though innovative design always develop in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
  
  
• Good Design Makes a Product Useful 
  A product is bought to be used.  It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic.  Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product while disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
  
  
• Good Design is Aesthetic 
  The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being, however only well-executed objects can be beautiful. 
  
  
• Good Design Makes a Product Understandable 
  It clarifies the product’s structure.  Better still, it can make the product talk.  At best, it is self-explanatory. 
  
  
• Good Design is Unobtrusive 
  Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools.  They are neither decorative objects nor works of art.  Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression. 
  
  
• Good Design is Honest 
  It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is.  It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
  
  
• Good Design is Long-Lasting 
  It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated.  Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years - even in today’s throwaway society.
   
• Good Design is Thorough in Detail 
  Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance.  Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the user.
  
  
• Good Design is Environmentally Friendly 
  Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment.  It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product. 
  
  
• Good Design is Less Design 
  Less, but better - because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials.  Back to purity, back to simplicity.
  
  
• Design Should Delight 
  A design should create moments of delight for the people who encounter it, though there is no steadfast rule as to what is delightful.  Delight can come in different forms for different people, this is where empathy comes in, but most likely it is a mix of form, function and value that creates that often intangible emotional connection to a well designed thing.
  
  
• Designed For Failure 
  A product should be designed to be durable and long lasting, and also with the understanding of limited life-span, especially in a demanding environment, everything eventually deteriorates and fails.  A product should be designed to fail elegantly and in a predictable way - and if possible, fail in such a way that the product is still useable in a meaningful way.
     
• Designed For Repair 
  A product should be designed and engineered for field expedient repair, if at all possible.
  
  
• Integrated Design Architecture 
  Products should be designed to complement and integrate with each other, without significant feature overlap.
  
  
• Good Design is Universally Intuitive 
  Product interaction should feel natural and instinctive, with icons and colours being used in place of text wherever possible.  Colours are chosen with consideration of colour blindness. 
  
  
• Designed Simply 
  Product design should strive to meet these timeless design principles, in the simplest manner possible.