Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated
by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler
Most Advanced Yet Acceptable
A method for determining the most commercially viable aesthetic for a design.1
What does it mean to create a successful design? Some define success in terms of aesthetics, others in terms of function, and still others in terms of usability. The noted industrial designer, Raymond Loewy, defined success in terms of commercial performance — that is, sales. By this standard, Loewy believed that aesthetic appeal was essentially a balancing act between two variables: familiarity and uniqueness — or, in modern psychological parlance, typicality and novelty — and to find the optimal balance between these variables was to find the commercial sweet spot for success. According to Loewy, the sweet spot could be identified using ...
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