Design Languages
Just as spoken languages are the basis for our
conversations with people, so design languages are the
basis for our interactions with products and services. Spoken
languages consist of words and rules of grammar. By analogy,
design languages consist of design elements and guidelines
for their combination. People use spoken language to express
themselves. Product designers use design languages
to design expressive objects. When a designer uses a
design language to design a product, the resulting product
expresses what it is, what it does, how it is to be used, and
the experiences to which it has the potential to contribute.
When people use a design language to use a product, the
resulting experience of use is simple and straightforward. The
best design languages take the design of experience on step
further by making interactions between people and objects
pleasant and continuously meaningful. Design languages
play a very important role in the expression of the “unfolding
of meaning” of objects.
[Fonte: Usability, Paul S. Adler & Terry A. Winograd,
Oxford University Press, 1992, pg. 18]