Design in a physical world.

When creating something that is designed to be used by people, whatever we create, we need to think of people not as abstract “users”, but as real humans. This idea was already expressed a lot of times, but what does it really mean?

In this short story I want to talk about some examples of how strongly design principles can be connected to human common sense and physical world structure.

Let’s start from very simple things. The fact that we are humans means that we represent certain biological species. Genetically we consist of sertain organs, we all have skin and we all have a brain, and we die without breathing air.

That’s why

It’s important not only about industrial design. Anything that is produced in a design process should aim at being ergonomic, meaning considering human anatomy and physical possibilities as an important factor. Did you know that in mobile interface design guidelines there is a minimum size of a button? Something like 40x40 px, because if the button is smaller, it would be really hard to tap on it with a finger. I never thought that our fingers are that big, honestly, before designing interfaces. Do you know that business cards usually don’t use font sizes less than 7–8 pt? It’s because most of us can barely read a smaller font size.

The digital industry is paying more and more attention to “online ergonomics”. More and more companies are adding accessibility features to their websites, more and more applications are offering alternative ways of interactions that minimise the physical effort, such as voice interaction and etc.

As human species, we live in a certain environment with certain boundaries and advantages.

In Space we are surrounded by a lot of planets and cosmic elements, but our environment is the emptiness. We don’t live on a pile of planets that are stuck together with each other.

You could get out of Space now and turn back to Earth, and you will see that emptiness is the main element here as well. We all breathe, so we need some air that exists in “empty” spaces. We all walk, so we need place to be able to achieve a sertain movement.

We build houses with empty spaces inside, and we aggressively widen natural empty spaces, because we think we need more of them to live in. People get very angry and can even start a war when they want to protect their territory, their space, or to gain more space.

That’s why

Good design is “full of air”, it has enough empty spaces to organise elements, define one element from another and give rest to the eye.

When designing a website, you cannot just put a button over a button over a banner over a text area! It would be very hard to understand for humans, who are used to living in spaces.

Ask yourself for example, what is the home of your dreams? What kind of apartment or house would you like to live in? Would it be a small place with very tight walls and no air, where you get stuck into a table or into a chair in order to get to the bathroom?

The truth is, most of us like to have some space. Even if you have a small apartment, and a just-enough office, sometimes you really wish to go outside, or you wish to go to a picnic in a park, just to feel some space. Some people say space is in a bigger house. Some people feel enough space when they can just keep quiet and sit in a quiet area.

In modern world, the problem of having not enough space is a very critical problem. We live in a world with over 7 billion people, and a lot of us really don’t have much space. This is a problem of economics, environmental politics, resource management and etc, too complex for this small article.

But at least in design, when we create something, we need to try to let people feel this free space between the elements, in order to avoid overwhelming the user with too much information. We need to try to fight for it in good design.

Another fascinating thing about our world is that there are so many different things! But what really makes them different? Difference and variation is usually provided by some criteria.

What makes a mountain a mountain is the fact that it’s higher than the land. A river goes from one point to another, which makes it a river other than the sea. Our rule of defining differences is measuring them by some criterias.

The differences in nature have some kind of rhythm. There are starts and stops of many events, for example. The raindrops fall and stop. To breathe, we need some time to inhale and exhale. We have a beginning and end in our breathing cycle, living cycle, etc. And in design it’s pretty much the same.

Remember those soft chairs from IKEA, that you can very easily sit in, but it is very hard to stand up? Well, this is quite okay, because, you know, it’s a relaxing chair. But when creating a chair concept, a designer should think not only about how nice and comfortable it would be to sit on this chair, but also about how can a person stand up? How can a person close this door, or open this window? How can a person start and end the interaction? Is it going to be easy and fast? Is it going to take some effort, and how to minimize that effort to start and end a certain action? These are the questions that every designer should ask.

These are only few examples of how the basic physical reality principles influence the design. These principles are very obvious, but yet important, and they should never be neglected in design.

Next time you design something, simply ask yourself

Good luck!

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