Journal Entry #3 – Designing for People : thoughts about Henry Dreyfuss

Henry S. Dreyfuss is considered the founding father of industrial design and one of the most prolific designers of the past century. He was also one of the pioneer designers of that time in 1920s when “Industrial Design” become a recognized philosophy in the United States. His invention dramatically changed the world and affected human being’s behavior.

One of Dreyfuss’ most recognized designs must be hat of the telephone produced for Bell laboratories in 1929 that incorporated receiver and microphone within the same molded plastic handset. It was and innovation for the time, and a design that heralded the way the phone of today would move in in design terms and at the time won an award as “The Phone of the Future.”And much of the science of anthropometric – so used in product designs of today – are based on the “Joe and Josephine” from his book “Measure of Man” in 1960.

Joe & Josephine

Take a look of Dreyfuss’ big hit product for Bell, the Princess phone in 1959, it was a compact telephone designed for convenient use in the bedrooms, and contained a light-up dial for use as a night light, and At&T offered the market a broad range of color selection for the Princess phone. In 1965, another popular phone – Trimline phone was launched to the market. It was also designed by Dreyfuss. The idea of behind the Trimline phone was to create an alternative telephone set design that was stylish and easier to use. The dial located inside of the handset, between the earpiece and mouth piece. Amazingly, the same concept is now used by all cell phones and cordless phones.

Dreyfuss designed everything from vacuum cleaners to railway engines, the main reason for his successful was the core concept of his works – designing for people. His idea was simple: every point of contact between what is designed, and the customer/user, must be positive, a delight, it must make people happier. Dreyfuss also told us that good design gives to the user self-assurance, efficiency, and satisfaction. Further, he emphasizes how industrial designers need to understand the producers’ pointviews as well.

Dreyfuss’ products matches what Maeda descrpbed in “The Laws of Simplicity”. A good design is trying to solve and reduce people’s problems. Make it simple, make it easy, but make sure it contains emotion. When we go to a store, we can easily tell that certain producers/designers of certain products care about us and really tries hard to ease our daily doings. Designers nowadays are faced with different challenges, Dreyfuss could serve as inspiration for designers to work based on function and aesthetics.

Reference:

Dreyfuss H. (2003) Designing for People. New York: Allworth Press.

Princess telephone. (2008, September 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:51, October 22, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Princess_telephone&oldid=236155214

Trimline telephone. (2008, August 13). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:50, October 22, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trimline_telephone&oldid=231640162