The 7 Qualities of Every Great Product

1. Fulfills a need

Products are things created by humans to be used for some purpose. The first criterion for a great product is that its purpose is to fulfill a need.

The most common form of useless products are ones that weren’t designed to fulfill some need; they were just made. The second most common form of useless products are the ones that don’t work.

2. Safe for the operator to use

It is the paramount responsibility of the designer to ensure that the product being designed is safe for the operator to use. Products that are designed to inflict harm on the operator are not great products and are avoided.

3. Either matches an operator’s pre-existing mental model or teaches a new, comprehensible conceptual model

To design a useful product, designers must understand the mind of the operator. All operators come with previous experience with other products and models in the world.

To make a product understandable to an operator, the product designer has two options:

1. Design the product based on the pre-existing models, metaphors, and conventions in the minds of the operators.
2. Design the product in such a way that it can teach a new, comprehensible conceptual model.

4. Its features are intent-based

Great products include only the affordances the operator needs when they are needed. If there are too few functions, the operator can’t get their job done; too many functions, and the product becomes difficult to learn and operate.

“Really good design is based on the activity you are trying to do, and gives you just the tools you need for the activity.” — Don Norman, Stanford University lecture on Living with Complexity, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjesjFXkFt4

5. All parts of the product were considered and designed holistically

Products often consist of multiple parts that work together to do something. The designer must be well aware of all of these parts with their capabilities and constraints and design the product considering how all of these parts work together.

In addition, the designer should consider any integrations with other related products. Great products are strong as a whole and fit comfortably into the ecosystem in which they are designed to exist.

6. Includes perceptible and intuitive clues to its operation

Again, great products fulfill a need and are meant to be used by someone to do something. If the operator cannot perceive the product’s affordances, or, in other words, if no one can figure out how to use it, the product is useless.

Great products have perceptible signifiers, or clues to their operation, to make their functions easily discoverable and clearly interactive.

7. Enjoyable to use

Great products are not only safe, functional, and intuitive, but they are enjoyable to use. They evoke feelings of delight when used and a sense of satisfaction when mastered. Only products that are enjoyable stand the test of time and are preserved and used for years down the road.