Qualities of Design: It Works and Itās Durable
Post from October 13, 2007 (ā» June 12, 2021), filed under Art and Design.
Attempting to improve my simplified definition of designāādesign revealsāāIād like to point out another important attribute beside functionality, namely durability (or robustness). This means that a designābe it physical or intangibleāthat works may nonetheless be bad if it breaks quickly or needs frequent updating.
We just need to think of e.g. an iPod, a product that is usually considered well designed, and imagine it broke after a few weeks. Or something industrial design, an excavator for instance, that doesnāt make 100 miles. Or a website that is communicating clearly and converting well but āprogrammedā so poorly that it needs to be refactored every time a new feature is added. Good design, but still not good since itās not robust.
The simplified definition appears to work, and this āextended definitionā seems to complement it nicely. Well, almost any definition that filters out decoration may work better than popular readings of design.
About Me

Iām Jens Oliver Meiert, and Iām an engineering manager and author. Iāve worked as a technical lead for Google, Iām close to the W3C and the WHATWG, and I write and review books for OāReilly. Other than that, I love trying things, sometimes including philosophy, art, and adventure. Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.
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Comments (Closed)
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On October 17, 2007, 3:40 CEST, Stefan Nitzsche said:
Recently I read that the iPod never went through extensive user tests. Do you know if itās true?
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On October 22, 2007, 21:08 CEST, Clay Newton said:
Maybe with regard to design/art/decoration:
Art is an end in and of itself.
Design is utilitarian; it is a means to an end.
Decoration is pleasurable.With all three of these classes of stuff, there is the good, bad and the ugly.
I donāt feel that these 3 classes are comprehensive. For instance:
Artifact is a historical representation of object state.
Definition description of object.Jens, do you think this is a valid extension? If so, what other classes are there?
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Perhaps my most comprehensive book: The Web Development Glossary (2020). With explanations and definitions for literally thousands of terms from Web Development and related fields, building on Wikipedia as well as the MDN Web Docs. Available at Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, and Leanpub.