The F Words of Design

Oversimplifying product design with a few words all starting with “F,” just for fun.

Form

Form speaks either to what a product categorically is or an aspect related to its shape. Does a time-keeping product take the form of a clock, watch, digital readout on a screen, or an app?

Function

Function is about the purpose, problems, and puzzles a design aims to solve or serve.

The classic dichotomy, form versus function, the seemingly inevitable tradeoff, isn’t always so inevitable in my view. At least it isn’t a priori. Form and function can work together and bolster each other. Concepts like “affordance” embody this, referring to instances for which the form of a physical object facilitates its function, like a door handle that implies how a hand should grasp and turn it.

Proteins, function comes from the form. Physical tools, affordance and function come from the form. Things can have similar shapes but different forms.

Finance

At what price. At what cost.

Feasibility

Can it be built, reasonably?

Fashion

Fitness

Is it viable?