A lot of what we seem to be doing...is getting design out of the way. With that sort of reason, it feels almost inevitable, almost undesigned and it feels almost, like of course it is that way. Why would it be any other way?

There are times when the design of a piece just feels so right, so intuitive, that it never occurs to me that it should have been any different or better. The interaction and sound of my Wii, the way my iPhone screen interacts to touch, an aluminum Coke Zero bottle. All pieces executed with simplicity and yet rare impact. Design can be clunky, feature-ridden, and graphic heavy. So how were these design decisions made? What separates the understanding of one designer from another?

In my opinion – there are layers to design success.

Most design decisions seem to start at the top. Is the design comparatively good? Does it measure up to what is generally accepted as good design amongst the general public?

Going down a layer, design can become heightened and more successful when it finds its footing in a competitive strategy. Is the design distinctively good? Does it standout amongst its main competitors?

The next layer seems to be one that takes design to an even deeper place – a more challenging one to meld together. The intersection of art & commerce. The business of design. Can a design meet strategic business objectives? Can it communicate a message, empower sales people, and give clarity to a CEO?

The bottom level is no doubt the hardest, most challenging, and rare. Is a design simply intuitively good? Is it so good that when you see it or pick it up you can't imagine it being better? When you look at it you feel like it was always supposed to have been that way? This is the art of understanding people so deeply that you begin to humanize created interactions and make them pleasing, even desirable.

Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, says it well:

A lot of what we seem to be doing in a product like that is getting design out of the way. With that sort of reason, it feels almost inevitable, almost undesigned and it feels almost, like of course it is that way. Why would it be any other way?

Its worth hearing him talk further in this clip from the film, Objectified.

When we become disconnected from people, from their needs and desires, we often lose touch with the ability to create with purposeful intuition.

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