Michael Roller

Designer Bias: Novelty

To be a better designer, I try to identify the subconscious preferences we have for our work, opening up communication towards objective evaluation. I’ve written about designer bias in the past, and Design Sojourn currently has a related post that reminded me to do this again. A common bias of industrial designers is the Novelty bias. The Novelty bias is a preference for products concepts to be unique, regardless of how appropriate for this is for the project.

The Novelty bias is a preference for products concepts to be unique, regardless of how appropriate this is for a project.

For example, if you’re designing a new car, it better not have round headlights. It would almost certainly look like a Beetle or Mini (and that would be bad). New cellphones or laptops shouldn’t use rounded rectangles, because then they would look like Apple products (and that would be bad too). Selecting from a wall full of ideas, designers gravitate towards the most unusual, not necessarily the most appropriate.

We designers are hyperaware of products and details, much more than the average consumer. It’s a strength to have this sensitivity, but it becomes a weakness when our fifth bottle design project for the year starts to take its toll. We crave novelty, but we don’t need it. To regular people, a simple cylinder might be okay for a new energy drink, even though all the other energy drinks come in the same stock bottle (in fact, traditional forms help them understand new products). Consumers don’t cringe in disgust when HP and Apple both use rounded rectangles as a formal element in their products. Sometimes novelty is important, but sometimes familiarity is just as meaningful. To make smart choices, we designers must be ready to remove our hypersensitive lenses and evaluate our work in the eyes of our consumer.

Tags: designer bias

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