Good Design
Design is a concept we all know well. It’s applied in so many fields in many forms and shapes. Some are considered absurd and gloomy such as modern architecture while some are weird paintings that are depicted to have great meaning inside.
But there comes the question: can we separate good and bad design from each other? Can such an objective design really exist? After all, aren’t human experiences subjective?
That being said, though, good design might not be universal since a person’s taste is subjective but the hallmarks of a bad design is almost universal.
It’s counterintuitive but what we despise is far more relatable than what we accurately like or prefer since despising is something that is societal reinforced and something that is so bad that no one has taste for it.
I’m not talking about bad taste, however, although there is a small chunk of it here. I’m talking about bad things such as expired food. No one in their right mind would prefer expired food. That may not be said with absolute certainty but almost everyone is a given.
This means we are not talking about preference but rather benefits. A person wants clothes and while he disagrees with whether he wants blue or red colored clothes, it is a matter of the bad taste of his choice. However, choosing to have no clothes would be a bad thing.
Another example, no one would prefer 360p over 1080p. Of course, there are nostalgic genres in which the quality is low to feel familiar but that’s a particular niche. Usually, people prefer 1080p.
This is exactly why good design is camouflaged whereas bad design sticks like a sore thumb.
It is only natural and normal for a video to have 1080p and good editing these days but a video with bad quality and poor editing immediately sticks out and is often disliked.
But the good design here is rarely cared much by the viewer since it is a good design. It simply is considered natural for the viewer to view such a video and not to mention, the video feels natural to have correct lighting or a proper start to end.
Just like wearing cloth colors that match. Good design feels natural and a given whereas wearing a bad design such as mismatched color combinations instantly stick out.
That being said, great design is appreciated but it’s only the top 1% of a subset of good design which is a small subset of design.
Yet in contrast, all bad design is mostly disliked. It doesn’t have to be the worst since any bad design isn’t hidden and is obvious and the moment it is obvious enough to the viewer, he can’t help notice it often and criticize it.
A form of Pareto Law is working here. In a way, the efforts and the reward to go from bad design that is almost universally noticed to camouflaged good design is just 1% for 99% for the results yet the last 1% of the results to great design is simply incredibly hard.