A minimal design lexicon

A minimal design lexicon of my pet terms, which may or may not be part of orthodox design training. Examples are given where helpful. Most of these terms have examples already in previous posts on this blog.

Chimaera
An object that does not successfully combine functions with a natural affinity.


Coherent colour scheme
Any use of colour that follows the logic of the colour wheel is coherent, although it may also be ugly in some eyes. Generally the use of contrasting colours – those colours that oppose one another on the colour wheel – results in a coherent scheme. Another way to achieve a coherent colour scheme is to establish a relationship in the object between a figure and a ground.

Coherence by contrasting colours

Coherence by figure on ground

Conceptual design
Design according to the idea of something rather than how something is used by, and how it directly affects, human beings. Examples are the best explainers of the concept.

Cue
A design element that gives instruction, help or suggestions for how the designed object ought to be thought about and used. It need not, and perhaps preferably should not, be verbal. The most effective cues are those inherent to form, colour and function.

Designed hyperspace
Parts of manufactured objects that do not correspond to the natural contours of their functioning components constitute designed hyperspace.

Empty space in the amplifier enclosure is designed hyperspace

Evident structure
Objects that allow the user to see what makes them work as they do, have evident structure.

Fetish
A designer may make a fetish, or irrational favourite, of materials in the same way that he or she has obsessions about certain gestures. A fetish may not have a negative impact on an object’s design integrity, depending on the degree of convergence in the fetish material to its intended use.


Fixing the unbroken / Unnecessary fix
A design that capriciously or egotistically overrules an existing successful design is an unnecessary fix.


Functional convergence
Objects that successfully combine functions that display a natural affinity in use, have functional convergence. An object that does its job well has functional convergence.


Gesticulation
Design choices resulting in forms that freely escape from any fitness to purpose while remaining ugly. Senseless, empty forms. A cardinal design error. 


Integrity
A word for any designed object that has a coherent colour scheme, functional convergence, evident structure and beauty in the eyes of the user.


Interesting for one minute
Describes any gesture in a design that tries to induce surprise, amusement, shock or titillation, which quickly wear off.


Kitsch facadism
The deliberate use of motifs, forms and gestures in designed objects that are completely divorced from their natural habitat. A cardinal design error.

Mean
Generally, deliberate design decisions that make an object cheaper, flimsier, more painful, uglier, and less robust, are mean.

Modishness
Capricious obeisance to aesthetic fads and fashions, in form, colour scheme or function.


Non-conventional cues
The urge to escape from convention is a mysterious but universal one in the discipline of design. Perhaps this is because the human body and its natural needs scarcely change, but ideology is in continual flux. Non-conventional cues are any features of the designed object that seem to be the result of a deliberate refusal of the features best fitted to an object’s use by human beings, or a refusal to allow human beings to interact with the object at all.

It's a radio

Tricky
Generally, deliberate design decisions that make an object misleading functionally, surprisingly bad value for money, confusing and un-straightforward to use, are tricky.