DaringFireball – one of the most intelligent and informative blogs on all things Apple – picks out an insightful quote from Steve Jobs on “Design” from a piece in the NY Times of 2003:

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s C.E.O. “People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

Garr Reynolds – the founder of PresentationZen – attempts to define “good design” in the following words:

To me, design is about humans creating great works that help or improve the lives of other humans, often in profound ways, and often in ways that are quite small and go unnoticed.

Designers are different from artists in this way in that artists really can simply (more or less) follow their creative impulses, and frankly, create whatever they feel like creating. But a designer works in a business environment and has to ask questions of herself such as “can people afford this?” “Is their a genuine need?” “Is this superfluous?”

… Good design must necessarily, in my opinion, have an impact on people’s lives, no matter how seemingly small. Good design changes things.

And, for good measure, let me also add the unusual perspective of Philippe Starck – one of the world’s best-known contemporary designers and easily among the most famous of “star designers” of the past two decades.  When asked, “What do humans really need?”, Starck had this to say:

P.S.:The ability to love. Love is the most wonderful invention of mankind. And then, one needs intelligence. Mankind, as opposed to animals, has managed to create a civilization based on intelligence. For this reason, no human can afford to not work on their intelligence. And humour, humour is important.

Zeit (Interviewer): And you can’t think of something material?

P.S.: We don’t need anything material. It is more important to develop one’s own ethic, and to stick to these rules. There is nothing else one would have to worry about.

Zeit: You can’t be serious. Isn’t there so much else one needs in order to survive?

P.S.: If you want to talk about objects: one certainly needs something to light a fire.

Zeit: Can you think of anything else?

P.S.: A pillow maybe, and a good matress.

Read More:
The DesignCouncil’s page on “Managing Design“