hacking and gonzo since 2000

One aspect of good design

The things I use and really like have one central things in common: they stay out of my way, and this aspect is in my opinion one of the most important things of a good design. Let's look on some examples of things that are really well designed and how they stay out of the way.

Google search

You search on Google and wait for a fraction of a second for an answer. There is no bullshit in between. Their design is transparent and they help people solve one problem very fast.

iPod

iPod, and the click-wheel in particular, is a work of a genius. It takes around 2 minutes to learn everything about the interface, and bam, one is ready to quickly browse and listen to music.

Python

Good designs can be found in anything - including programming languages. Python mostly stays out of the way - it's really one of the reasons why I really like it.

To make it clear, here is how to read all the lines of a file in Python:

lines = open('file.txt').readlines()

No bullshit and very easy to remember. Compare this one line with file reading in Java (horrific).

2 things to remember

When you design something try to remember these 2 things:

Help people accomplish their goal in fastest time possible
Stay out of the way

Design • 9. Feb 2007