Never use these five words

If you are trying to brief a designer, or provide any kind of feedback to a designer, there are a few words that pop up really often, but should be avoided. Here’s my top five.

“Clean”

Just don’t. This means a different thing to different people. I am not going to even try to describe what I think this means, or what most people think this means, as I have seen almost every type of design under the sun described as “clean”. I guess it’s the opposite of a dirty design? But what is a dirty design anyway?

“Simple”

In my experience, very few briefs call for something that is “simple” in the way most people interpret the word. Most designs just need to do lots of different things at the same time. For example, most digital interfaces can’t, and shouldn’t be made “simple” in the way most people understand it to mean. “Simple” makes sense for things like billboards and posters, but simple is basically a given in that context, so not very helpful.

“Sexy”

Do you want actual nudity in the design? Really? Then ok, you get a free pass. Otherwise, this is a no no. Again, we have no shared meaning for what this looks like. Is it red? pink? glossy? who knows? But I can tell you right now it looks bad.

“Intuitive”

This is a good objective, but it’s not a word that us useful to describe how something should look or work.

“Engaging”

All design is required to engage people on some level so this word on its own isn’t helpful. The word used to refer to how something could encourage people to interact with a design, but it seems to mean nothing much now. Those using it probably have something else in mind. Exciting? dynamic maybe?

Got your own list of words? I am sure you do.

Takeaway
– When describing how design should look or work, avoid the above words, and words that are an obvious objective of the work.
– Instead, use words that we all can agree on. Words that are descriptive. Warm, cold. Sterile, fun. Bright, dark. Friendly, serious. Minimal, Impactful. Futuristic, vintage. Quirky, conventional. Abstract, etc.

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