Function, keep us from the dark side…

Now as most people that know me can confess, I am in no means a fan of Star Wars (most people will probably stop reading now). Truth be told I haven’t the slightest clue how many films have even been created thus far. So do forgive me if my post isn’t latent with Star Wars film references or characters.
Unlike my fellow designer (Andrea) my character knowledge is limited to Jabba the Hutt only cause I remember him from my childhood, and I tend to prefer a bit more Moonwalker than Skywalker.
Although we’ve sat side-by-side for a few years now, occasionally bickering about irrelevant topics in the grand scheme of things, this whole Form vs Function debate seems to have taken our ‘designer’ discussions to a whole new level…

What’s the purpose of this?

The debate is on. Which follows the other? Should form define function, or does function dictate form. It’s a question I would so love to ask any one of the great designers of our generation, and those of generations past… Designers that focussed on the true essence of their creations. What’s the purpose, the offering, the user benefit?
Greats like Ferdinand Porsche, who gave birth to the humble VW Beetle and later the ever-classic Porsche range. A legacy that has produced and given form to some of the most beautiful machines known to man.
His origins, though, as the designer of the Beetle, where not focussed towards the form we associate with his brand nowadays. Rather, it was to create the most functional vehicle possible. A vehicle that would be inexpensive to produce and can be sold to the masses. Boring right? Not exactly, not when we consider how his functional design inspired generations, not to mention going on to be one of the best-selling cars of all time.
Even the Porsche range we know today, with all of its form over function appearance, still maintain the same Function First fundamentals. Admittedly, they are cars of beauty, drooled upon by most (including myself ), but this beauty is nothing more than a representation of the brand’s ‘purpose’ to produce vehicles with exceptional driving performance. A vehicle which functions flawlessly. So much so that Porsches haven’t really changed in form since inception.

It better function, or else!

Function has given birth to so many of our much-loved gadgets and gizmo’s. Cell phones turned smartphones, Walkman turned iPod, big things scaled to tiny things, all born from the need of greater functionality. Their form, an expression of current trends or simply to accommodate their new incarnations.
No, I’m not saying we shouldn’t focus on appearance or form, of course, we must. After all, as Andrea so rightly expressed in his post, items of beauty tend to capture our imagination and our undying desire for all things shiny and clickable. But I ask, what’s the point of browsing through a beautifully designed website, downloading a great looking App or buying the latest and greatest if it’s functionally useless?
Most users/consumers just want something that works, whether it’s a website, product or service. If it looks good then it will most likely have greater appeal. But in a world where plenty are likely to express their disappointment when faced with a product/service that hasn’t functioned or performed as expected (especially if we’ve paid good money for it), I argue that functionality is key.
My bet is that brands focusing their efforts on customer retention and brand loyalty will be hard pressed for luck if their offering isn’t up to par, even if it does look the part.

BB-8. Sure it’s not a Dyson?

Another great designer that springs to mind is James Dyson. You know, the guy that invented the weird vacuum with a ball stuck to the bottom. A revolutionary designer that has managed to combine the best of both form and function.
Sure, he didn’t invent the concept of the vacuum, nor did he invent any other product we haven’t already seen. His genius is his ability to revolutionise and enhance the way many conventional household products function, whilst packaging them in a more aesthetically pleasing form. As with Porsche, Dyson’s mantra has always been one of function first. So much so that even the brands television adverts purposely state that their products utilise patented technology, giving them a functional edge on their competitors.

Functionality. Built-in.

As with many debates, the points for and against either perspective are many. So yes, I do agree that form does play a very important part of any design, though functionality takes a design beyond the superficial. Though, in my opinion, functionality is the key factor that separates a nice design from a great one, allowing for greater user integration and thus a greater user experience.

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Where it all began

It was a nippy December evening; two designers were ending the day by ogling ‘award winning sites’ and ‘design trends for 2016.’ They came across a particular site. One fell in love with its conceptual nature. “These guys (The agency) had the balls to publish such a website, and the client should have been pretty cool about it too!” he said. The other designer looked un-amazed and emphasized on how unnatural the navigation was. Conceptual for the sake of being conceptual. He thought it wasn’t that good at all.
Queue the age old argument. Form or Function? Which follows what?
Naturally, I threw myself onto Forms’ side; after all, I’m a self-proclaimed illustrator at heart. The debate went on and on, as these discussions normally do. Later that evening, I sat myself down in the thick red chair, popcorn and Kinnie in hand, and watched The Force Awakens.
Yellow text rolled over a starry sky, an imperial destroyer crossed the screen, the camera panned down to the planet Jakku, and a ball-shaped droid whizzed all over the screen. BB-8!
“That’s it!” I told myself. The perfect example of form dictating function lay before my very own eyes!
NOTE! I am by no means implying that we designers should take a superficial approach to every project we work on. Far from it. Very, very, far from it. I just think we need to start closing our eyes a little more, and dream of new, uncharted worlds of our own, rather than clad pre-existing frameworks and design the expected, in the name of function. Taking BB-8’s three body components as a guide to my argument on Form being more important than function.

1. BB-8’s Head – Not just a pretty face.

You can’t argue against BB-8 not being one big cute ball of fun. Whoever designed this droid made sure that the robot looked good, moved good and sounded good. He’s (She’s?) got so much visual personality that you inherently forget that you’re looking at a robot. Coming up with the technology to practically build BB-8 was done after the initial, ‘impossible’ design was produced.
Pretty faces help. Like all great bits of design, be it an LP cover artwork or app on your phone, the first thing that makes you pick up the album or ‘click a button’ is the look of the cover or button itself. We should constantly strive to create a prettier world, and build function around our visual goals.

2. BB-8’s Body – AKA. The Chicken or the Egg?

It goes without saying that form should co-exist with function, though which part should we tackle first? Many might say function, as it is the backbone of our creations – yet it is imagination that drives innovation. The current BB-8 design was based off an old R2-D2 sketch, back before Star Wars was even a thing. The design was shelved as a result of technical shortcomings 30 years ago; however, the ‘impossible’ form brought about a new technology. We’d have a very different BB-8 had they decided to design ‘Function First’ (if we’d have a BB-8 at all). Form should give rise to function, we’re here to inspire aren’t we?
As Tobias Van Schneider puts it, “Often the secret lies right there, in the beginning that looks a lot like your own beginning of a new project. It’s the phase we can all identify with…”
The first stage is the most crucial stage of any project, that’s where we decide how we’re going to tackle the problem or challenge. Thinking about how it’s going to look and feel, even if it feels impossible, will lead you to discover new approaches to giving life to your ideas.

3. BB-8’s Thumbs Up – Be awesome.

Character is something that dies out when function dictates form; who said that you can’t give character to the most rigid accountancy firm in the world? There’s no doubt that the art and the science of design need to work together, but as thought leaders we need to slowly (but surely) detach ourselves from what we know works. Having R2-D2 return as the primary droid in Star Wars would have left every fan satisfied, though dreaming up and giving life to BB-8 left everyone surprised. And we all love surprises, don’t we?

We might not always have to re-invent the wheel, but in this droids case, a ball made more sense.

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