Self Chosen Post #3- Product Design

Dieter Rams would despise the design of my pepper shaker. It is a standard pepper shaker, nothing too fancy- which is fine. However, it does not work as promised, and deliver pepper properly upon shaking it. It gives out scarce amount of pepper and requires very rigourus shaking for this to happen. I decided to list Deter Rams' 10 principles of good desing, and compare the pepper shaker against it.

1. Good design is innovative.

• The pepper shaker is in no way innovative, it is simple and standard deisgn.

2. Good design makes a product useful.

• The long and narrow neck of the pepper shaker may block the pepper from coming out.

3. Good design is aesthetic.

• It has decoration and a logo on it, but that is the extent of its aesthetic quality. 

4. Good design helps a product be understood.

• Because of the holes in the cover, it can be understood that this product is a pepper shaker. Its darker color sepcifies that it is for pepper instead of salt. 

5. Good design is unobtrusive.

• The compactness and slenderness makes this pepper shaker unobtrusive. 

6. Good design is honest. 

• It does not claim to be anything more than a pepper shaker. 

7. Good design is durable. 

• The cover is made of plastic which is peeling a bit, but the body is made of thick glass. 

8. Good design is consistent to the last detail. 

• The pepper shaker is extremely inconsistent, and it is clear through the functionality of the proudct that there was minimal attention to detail. 

9. Good design is concerned with the environment. 

• Glass and semi-hard plastic is used, both of which can be recycled.

10. Good design is as little design as possible.

• There is not much design that was used to create this object because of the simplicity of it, but that does not help the product. 

Although a pepper shaker is a small object, there is still design incorporated in it, and it is an everyday product. This particular pepper shaker only follows 3 of Rams' principles, and it is not a very great or useful product.