How do you recognize good vs bad design?

A lot of people think that design is just about making things look pretty. It’s not. “Pretty” is just a byproduct of good design.

And good design is about making strategic choices that make it easy and enjoyable for people to consume your content.

Good design is about catching people’s attention by triggering an emotional response and then holding it long enough to get your message across and inspire them to take action.

Good design is about creating a pleasant and professional brand experience for your audience that makes them feel like you give a damn.

And the way you recognize good design is, IRONICALLY, when you don’t notice it.

When the design does such a great job of showcasing the content, when you’re so busy enjoying the experience of consuming the content that you don’t even notice the design itself. It’s literally invisible. That’s when you know you have good design.

Good design is achieved by removing the noise, the fluff and the superfluous.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery said it best:
“A designer knows that they have achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

So if you want to achieve good design, chances are you don’t need to add more ornamental elements to your design, you need to remove them and let your content breathe and shine.