There’s an old saying in Industrial Design: “form follows function” which, loosely translated, means a really well-designed product (or system) instantly conveys its function to the user via its appearance.
For example, in considering the affordances of doors, door hardware can signal whether to push or pull without signs1, thereby instantly conveying its intended operation to users.
For decades this design philosophy has embodied countless mass produced objects and consumer products. Look at any noteworthy product created during the golden age of Industrial Design throughout the industrial revolution leading up to the information age and you’re bound to see this axiom represented.
Fast forward to the digital economy. The past decade has seen a dramatic shift in how products are designed and manufactured. How people feel about a product or system has now become largely independent from the physical form of an object or device.
Just look at smartphones. The optimal form tends to emphasize the screen causing most phones to generally adhere to the same rectangular exterior form —a glass slab with radiused corners. However what lurks beneath the surface (on the screen) then becomes the focus of the user and ultimately what distinguishes one brand of smartphone from the next.
In the user-iIllusion of the world Norbert Bolz sets forth the compelling idea that form now follows the feelings of consumers and not the function of things because:
..it’s hardly possible any more for these functions to be illustrated – just witness the computer. Design no longer strives for functional or objective transparence, but rather for security and the trust of the world. The more complex our world becomes, the more urgent the design of the interfaces between people and systems becomes. And thus the successful design of everyday items is no longer positioned towards the object, but rather towards the subject.
1 The Design of Everyday Things, 1998. Donald A. Norman, Page 10 Affordances.