Maximum Effect for Minimum Means: The Aesthetics of Efficiency

Author:

da Silva Odette1,Crilly Nathan2,Hekkert Paul3

Affiliation:

1. Odette da Silva is a doctoral researcher in Design Aesthetics at Delft University of Technology. She combines conceptual and experimental approaches to studying how people's aesthetic appreciation of products is affected by their knowledge of the designers' intentions or intended effects. Her research is part of Project UMA ().

2. Nathan Crilly is a senior lecturer in Engineering Design at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are in the areas of design, technology and communication. He employs an interdisciplinary approach to studying how artifacts are developed, the properties they exhibit, and the ways in which people respond to them.

3. Paul Hekkert is a full professor of Form Theory in the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology. He conducts research on the ways products impact human experience and behavior. He is co-editor of Product Experience (2008) and co-author of Vision in Design: A Guidebook for Innovators (2011).

Abstract

The aesthetic judgment of an artifact is usually interpreted as an assessment of the artifact's sensory properties. But an artifact can also be appreciated, and still aesthetically, for the way it fulfills its purpose. Existing design theory does not provide the concepts required for describing this aspect of aesthetic appreciation and so cannot fully explain what people mean when they say a product is beautiful. In this paper, we develop an understanding of the aesthetic judgment based on the principle of maximum effect for minimum means. We explain how a means–effect relationship can be established between a product and its purpose or effect, and how the product and the effect can be perceived to be minimal and maximal. We also explain how the appreciation of this relationship depends on a set of assumed alternatives for both the product or means and the effect. Finally, we provide some directions for future research into design aesthetics.

Publisher

MIT Press - Journals

Subject

Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

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