A-Z Popular Blog Top Search »
Design
 Advertisements
Related Guides
Design
top   »  technology   »  technology design   »  design smell

What is Design Smell?

 , April 14, 2016 updated on January 22, 2017
Design smell is a term for poor designs that violate principles of design or that generally appear to be overly complex, unskilled or bizarre. It can be applied to any type of design including technical, information and visual design.
The term "smell" suggests that evaluation of design is subtle and subjective. It is notoriously difficult to define rules of good design as it's something of an art. As such, design smell is best detected by the process of peer review.
Overview: Design Smell
TypeDesign
DefinitionA design that is low quality in the opinion of other designers.
Related ConceptsPeer Review
Design Debt
Quality
Risk

Talent

This is the complete list of articles we have written about talent.
Area Of Expertise
Art
Character Building
Cognitive Abilities
Confidence
Creative Ability
Creative Works
Creativity
Credibility
Data Literacy
Decision Making
Design
Design Thinking
Employability
Expertise
Gaming Skills
Influencing
Knowledge
Leadership
Meaningful Work
Personal Presence
Personal Resilience
Problem Solving
Professional Self
Professionalism
Public Speaking
Qualifications
Self Direction
Self Management
Storytelling
Strategic Thinking
Strengths
Systems Thinking
Visual Design
More ...
If you enjoyed this page, please consider bookmarking Simplicable.
 
Cite »

Design

A comprehensive guide to design.

Color Theory

An overview of color theory.

Layout vs Composition

The arrangement of the elements of a design or work of art.

Modeless vs Contextual

The difference between modeless and contextual user interfaces explained.

Types Of Design

A list of common types of design.

Design Process

The steps in a design process.

Design Quality

The common types of design quality.

Universal Design

A definition of universal design with examples.

Sensory Design

A definition of sensory design with examples.

Emotional Design

An overview of emotional design.

Elegance

The definition of elegance with examples.

Types of Quality

A list of quality types.

Quality vs Value

The subtle difference between quality and value.

Quality Metrics

The common types of quality metrics.

Service Quality

The primary types of service quality.

Experience Quality

The common types of experience quality.

Critical To Customer

A definition of critical to customer with examples.

Design Life

The common types of design life.

Planned Obsolescence

The common types of planned obsolescence.

Quality Objectives

The definition of quality objectives with examples.

Credence Quality

A definition of credence quality.

Trending

The most popular articles on Simplicable in the past day.

New Articles

Recent posts or updates on Simplicable.
Site Map
Design
Education
Engineering
Industries
Information
Information Security
Information Technology
Infrastructure
Knowledge
Management
Materials
Media
Quality
Quality Assurance
Risk
Science
Society
Software
Systems
Technology
Technology Culture
Technology Strategy
User Experience Design
More ...
© 2010-2023 Simplicable. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of materials found on this site, in any form, without explicit permission is prohibited.

View credits & copyrights or citation information for this page.

Home About     Privacy Policy     Cookies Terms of Use     Contact Us Search


Cookies help us deliver our services. You have choices regarding these cookies. Please visit our privacy policy, cookie policy and consent tool to learn more.


Copyright 2002-2023 Simplicable. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, redistributed or translated. Report violations here.