Functional Design

Posted 01 Feb 2010 - 10 Gratefully received comments

I had to drive a fair distance this week. I spent well over 7 hours in the car over 3 days. That’s a lot for me. Most of my journey was made using big roads, which I find very boring. I know it’s not ideal to let your mind wander driving at around 70mph, but it happens!
You tend to assume that there isn’t a lot of inspirational graphic design at the side of the road, in fact, there is an abundance of excellent examples; it’s just not what most people would call interesting.

There are hundreds of blog posts on the internet that showcase beautiful examples of design, I often think that functional design is overlooked. It may not be sexy, it may not be visually arresting all of the time, but it is an absolute necessity. Something that is rare in the design field.

I’m going to keep this article short and sweet, as it’s only a general design musing I entertained myself with during my journey. I tried to think of a few areas of design that place function over form.

Road signs


Building signs

Official forms

Health & Safety signs

Instructional literature

“Functional”, is sometimes used as a derogatory term. In this particular discipline of design it is, rightfully, a compliment. The essence of design is communication.

In a lot of ways these everyday graphic products can be described as ‘invisible’ design. They are so familiar to us that we very rarely stop to analyse them. This is one way that they are successful. You shouldn’t be thinking about what they look like, you should only take aboard the message. Think about this next time you get a final demand for a bill you haven’t paid. The letter really doesn’t look all that nice, it’s been designed to look unfriendly, even intimidating. I’m guessing the designer that made that page layout isn’t putting it in his portfolio!

As I drove along the M3 I wondered how much chaos would be caused if I were to change the font on each of the signs. I’m willing to bet it would be considerable.

There is real skill in putting these functional designs together, and it’s never celebrated. I’m trying my best not to sound bitter, as I have put together many functional graphic products myself. It’s one of those jobs where, if it’s done right, the client cannot tell how much effort has gone into making it work effectively. It can be a thankless task. However, as a designer it’s great to lock horns with a difficult communication challenge, even if aesthetics have to be compromised.

I have a feeling that I will be writing a form Vs function article in the near future. I’d really like your opinions on functional design and it’s place within the industry. Do you produce functional graphics? Is it challenging? Is it boring? Do you still relish the challenge?

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10 Comments

  • Mark S says:
    February 2, 2010 at 9:48 am

    Learning as an engineer and being a generally good mathematician all my life I find the use of function & logic to interest me more than something looks aesthetically pleasing.
    Everything I analyse as a “designer” I begin by looking at how well it works rather than how nice it looks. I feel this is the way forward as more and more people get the computer programs to create designs to briefs, designers need to concentrate on what makes them different, such as the underlying knowledge of why stuff works, and the function behind everything.

    Looking forward to the article about form vs function.

    [Reply]

    Ken Reynolds Reply:
    February 5th, 2010 at 8:37 am

    You have an interesting approach Mark. Thanks for commenting. The whole form/function thing is implicit in my design process. It’s a constant battle between the two instead of considering one before the other.
    It’s great that you have used knowledge in a slightly different field to help you as a designer.

    [Reply]

  • Kim H says:
    February 5, 2010 at 9:18 pm

    I think I’ll be bold and say I take a similar approach as Mark does. When I begin a design, I don’t look at “How can I make my portfolio look uber cool and impressive”, I usually begin with “How can I organize this so that it makes sense to the user.”

    Concerning the argument of Form and Function, I’ve always felt that they very much go hand in hand. An aesthetically pleasing design may look “cool” and interesting, but a user will fail to appreciate it if they become frustrated while trying to get information out of it. On the other hand, the part of me that is a graphic designer looks at many web applications, and feel that perhaps if their Form were more interesting and dynamic, then that would add to their function.

    [Reply]

    Ken Reynolds Reply:
    February 6th, 2010 at 9:16 am

    Hi Kim, thanks for taking the time to comment.

    Form Vs function will always be one of those debates that doesn’t have an answer because the balance of these elements is entirely dependant on the individual brief. The designer’s job is to use that fine balance to give their work the correct impact. It should be seen less as a battle of ideals and more of a communication tool.

    [Reply]

  • Laura says:
    March 11, 2010 at 2:24 pm

    This reminds me of an article I read in Grafik magazine (or possible Creative Review) a few years ago, which went into detail about the redesign of roads signs in America – which was mostly down to a slight change in the typeface to make it more legible. And although on a potentially boring topic, I found it really interesting because it was looking at design from its core value – the importance of great communication.

    On various web-design blogs, there has been a lot of talk about User Experience (UX) recently, and tips to make your website more user-friendly in terms of icons, behaviours, etc. To me, all UX is, is a fancy modern term for function. Unfortunately a lot of these blogs seem to look at function/UX after the form/website has been put together – how to improve UX after a website has went live. But really any good or great design should be function first, then form.

    [Reply]

  • Ken Reynolds says:
    March 12, 2010 at 8:54 am

    Thanks for commenting Laura, always nice when someone dives back into the older posts!

    Web design really does test the limits of the form vs function debate. You might argue that if all websites were built towards optimum usability they would all look the same. Nice and easy to use, but the internet would be dull!

    The interactivity of a website puts another dimension on the whole debate. I dare say my blog could look a lot more exciting, but I would rather people read the content than be wowed by the visuals.
    I’m a print designer at heart and admire the tough job webdesigners have on this issue.

    [Reply]

  • Mark S says:
    March 12, 2010 at 10:58 am

    I’m not sure I agree that all sites would look the same if optimum usability was the first thing considered and upheld…
    I feel that all navigation would be better, all contact forms would be well executed, and all logos were easily found… Unlike so many sites :(
    Yet there is still so much room to play with, un-knowing as to what print you deal with (apologies) it would be like saying that all newspapers look the same as they focus on the same issues…

    [Reply]

  • Ken Reynolds says:
    March 12, 2010 at 11:16 am

    @ Mark
    If we’re talking in broad strokes I would say that all newspapers do look the same when compared to the variations we currently find in web design. Of course it’s a flawed analogy in many ways because of their inherent differences, but when you strip away their reasons for being, they are there to communicate a message.
    Some newspapers differentiate themselves by how ‘dense’ they look. Broadsheets stay away from big banner headlines, whereas tabloids use them to draw in readers.
    Some would say that the old broadsheets had usability issues because of the massive size of the pages!

    Perhaps I’m stretching the point to far! :)

    My point was that if a layout was devised that cracked the code of optimum usability and most site adopted it, would the internet then be boring, regardless of the variation.

    On reflection I was probably playing devils advocate. Content is always king.
    You don’t get bored of reading a book because you have to keep turning the page!

    The thing you have to be careful about is the content overriding the usability, for example I never liked those adventure books that made you skip around the pages! ;)

    [Reply]

  • Laura says:
    March 16, 2010 at 9:21 am

    Re. Adventure Books: Me neither – I actually had one that you couldn’t finish because there was no link to the 2nd last step (I went through the book several times, page by page)!

    This debate has certainly gotten interesting. I do see what you mean about if someone found the perfect formula for creating a very usable and interesting site, that it would get copied 1000 times in a moment (and the same is true even for “bad” design), but I suppose this is were we are lucky for being human, and everyone having different tastes – what may be perfect for one person, will be grotesque for another! One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

    On your site’s design – I think you’ve gotten a really nice balance with good content and interesting design elements and colour scheme. Personally I’ve found that I can (usually) tell a print/graphic designer’s website a mile off. They’ll look nice and work very well, but because they are used to applying the rules of great print design, rather than great website design – they all end up looking the same, and unfortunately a bit dated too. But you’ll be glad to know that your site definitely DOES NOT fall into that category.

    I think if anything, I’ve went the other way, and now find print-based design more of a challenge. Guess I’m getting a bit rusty when it comes to sending artwork to print.

    [Reply]

  • Ken Reynolds says:
    March 21, 2010 at 4:00 pm

    Thanks for your thoughts Laura.

    We can only talk in broad strokes on this sort of subject. I guess I’m arguing from the point of view of a majority, if anything like that exists? Everyone’s tastes are different so I guess you could say there is never an agreed consensus.

    Sending artwork to print is always a bit nervy, but it’s like anything the more you do it the easier it becomes.

    [Reply]

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Who's Ken?

Picture of Ken I'm a freelance graphic designer living and working in Suffolk. I've been using Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign & Quark Xpress since 1999 but I've been using pens, pencils, paper and most importantly my imagination for a lot longer. I'm always looking for new clients to work with and interesting projects to work on.

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