Modest, Humble, Unobtrusive Design

“Good design is as little design as possible.” Dieter Rams


That’s the part many of us often get wrong.  As a designer, I always keep a list of Dieter Ram’s Principles of Good Design  with me to ponder over whenever I need direction. Inksie came up with a 10-part series on each of these principles, with some very useful insights from different writers and illustrators.


For more insights on design, I’m still trying to get my hands on Paul Rand’s book Design, Form and Chaos, now considered something of a classic.  

     ‘When form predominates, meaning is blunted;
       When content predominates, interest flags;
       Genius comes in when both of these fuse.”  Paul Rand

Embrace the Space

“It seems to be human nature to favour filling blank spaces with objects and elements over leaving spaces blank or empty” (Elephas Design Journal)


If you lived in Mumbai, you would cherish space! Today's post is about space and the human tendency to clutter and fill up space unnecessarily. 

In art and design, the term Negative Space is used to describe the space around an object. It is the opposite of an identifiable object. It is used to define and set off the boundaries of the object. It gives balance to a composition and makes it less noisy. 

The term horror vacui (fear of empty space) describes the filling of the entire surface of an art work with detail --- design that is cluttered or suffocates. 

Generally in design, less free space is perceived to be of lower value. Minimalist design with more free space comes at a premium. 

I think this is especially true in the design of e-learning. We need to think about the noise that is created when a learner is assaulted by too much information – be it through text, pictures or rambling audio-visual media.

In the delivery of learning programs there is a similar reason to think about giving learners space and time --- through spaced repetition:

The spacing effect describes the observation that instruction which is repeated at intervals which are farther apart in time have a greater impact on improving memory than repetitions closer together in time (Ebbinghaus, 1885).

So let's get rid of the clutter. And embrace the space.