In Design, Form Always Follows Function.

What comes to our mind when we think about design. The first thought is usually about some type of shape and some colour. We think about design primarily in those dimensions. We think of design in the terms of forms. Forms dominate our perception of design because they are readily perceivable. We have our primary senses, sight, smell, sound, taste, and feel. If we have all the five senses working, the sense of sight is used most of the time for preliminary analysis of things in our surroundings. Our primary set of evaluations are actually done just by sight before we start to engage our senses. This is explainable from the point of view of a fast brain as covered beautifully by Daniel Kahneman in his book ‘Thinking Fast & Slow’. 

But what if we take a pause to think beyond the shapes and the colours. We engage our slow brain and think about function rather than limiting ourselves to forms. Form always follows function. We want to learn primarily about the function of objects and systems. Design of how things work. Especially when we are in the field of creating something for others, we have to first think about function. What is the job that is required to be done? We have to design something for function so that the job that needs to be done gets done, and then add form to it. 

Beauty in working systems (products, services, communities etc) comes from their core functions rather than their surface beauty.

Best

VM

10th Boulevard