Dieter Rams Quotes

Design must reflect the practical and aesthetic in business but above all... good design must primarily serve people.

Accessible design is good design.

Design is directed toward human beings. To design is to solve human problems by identifying them and executing the best solution.

For much of its existence, design was all about convenience. We wanted to hide technology so that users are not distracted into thinking about the tools they use.

The only important thing about design is how it relates to people.

I am always looking for ways to move technology away from being over-featured. Moving to Silicon Valley in the mid-1990s meant I grew up as a designer in an environment where technology is a tool and not a means to an end. I believe that design should be driven by ideas, not style.

You are not designing for yourself, and shouldn't be. Most people using the Web don't understand (most of) what makes it work and don't want to. Design for those people. There are many more of them than you.

In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design.

I design for real people. I think of our customers all the time. There is no virtue whatsoever in creating clothing or accessories that are not practical.

There's a fundamental problem with how the software business does things. We're asking people who are masters of hard-edged technology to design the soft, human side of software as well. As a result, they make products that are really cool - if you happen to be a software engineer.

Also note that invariably when we design something that can be used by those with disabilities, we often make it better for everyone.

User-centered design means understanding what your users need, how they think, and how they behave - and incorporating that understanding into every aspect of your process.

Good design to me is both appearance and functionality together. It's the experience that makes it good design.

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

The point is that I don't design stuff for myself. I'm a toolmaker. I design things that other people want to use.

To whom does design address itself: to the greatest number, to the specialist of an enlightened matter, to a privileged social class? Design addresses itself to the need.

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.

What is design? It's where you stand with a foot in two worlds - the world of technology and the world of people and human purposes - and you try to bring the two together.

Far too few designers put any thought into usability, ending up with a great product that's completely inaccessible.

Web users ultimately want to get at data quickly and easily. They don't care as much about attractive sites and pretty design.

Design is people.

Integrating breakthrough technology into everyday products is always a challenge; at the same time, this is exactly how design makes tech products easily adoptable in life.

Design helps shape our everyday interactions through products, furniture, objects, or experiences.

When we think of design, we usually imagine things that are chosen because they are designed. Vases or comic books or architecture... It turns out, though, that most of what we make or design is actually aimed at a public that is there for something else. The design is important, but the design is not the point. Call it "public design"... Public design is for individuals who have to fill out our tax form, interact with our website or check into our hotel room despite the way it's designed, not because of it.

You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people; design is made for people.