How to Apply Dieter Rams' Ten Principles of Good Design to Game Development

You may not know the name Dieter Rams, but you almost certainly know his influence. His approach to industrial design can be seen in many of the products we use today, particularly the clean, functional design associated with companies such as Apple.

For me, however, the connection is a little more personal. I grew up surrounded by some of the Braun products pictured today in books such as Dieter Rams: Less but Better. At the time, of course, I didn't think of them as examples of industrial design. They were simply everyday objects.

Years later, I came to understand that there was a philosophy behind that simplicity. Rams eventually articulated that philosophy through his Ten Principles of Good Design. Although those principles were developed for industrial design, I think they provide an equally useful framework for something seemingly quite different: designing video games.

Game developers often focus heavily on graphics, mechanics, monetization, and player engagement. However, they don't often discuss their overall design philosophy, which is equally important.

Dieter Rams dedicated many years as the chief designer at Braun, during which he developed ten guiding principles that have subtly influenced everything from Apple's product design to contemporary software interfaces. While his rules weren't originally made for games, they surprisingly resonate with them in a meaningful way.

Many of the frustrations players experience—such as cluttered interfaces, bloated mechanics, and systems that seem to serve no clear purpose—are often rooted in violations of these principles. Taking the time to work through them carefully can be one of the most enlightening exercises a game developer can undertake.

Why This Framework Works

The goal of game design is not to add features. It's to create a meaningful experience and, even more importantly, to create a game that is fun to play.

Great games achieve this through clarity, consistency, and purpose. Every mechanic, every interface element, and every visual effect should earn its place. Rams' ten principles, even though not originally intended for game development, offer a practical filter for deciding what stays and what goes.

Principle 1: Good Design Is Innovative

Innovation doesn't mean doing something no one has ever done. It means solving a problem in a better way.

In a cyberpunk stealth game, for example, a traditional minimap is a solved problem — but it pulls players out of the world. An alternative: route threat information through the player character's cybernetic implants, surfacing it in the environment. The technology isn't the innovation. However, presenting information in a way that supports immersion is.

Questions worth asking:

• Does this mechanic solve a real problem for the player?
• Is it genuinely different, or just differently dressed?

Principle 2: Good Design Makes a Product Useful

Every system in your game should have a clear purpose — not just a precedent.

Many games accumulate mechanics because other games have them: crafting systems, skill trees, inventory weight limits, reputation meters, and survival loops. Without a strong justification, each one adds friction without enhancing the experience.

Before building any game system, ask: What player problem does this solve? If the answer is vague, the feature probably doesn't belong.

Principle 3: Good Design Is Aesthetic

Aesthetics in games goes far beyond art direction. It includes sound design, animation, lighting, UI typography, motion, and feedback — every layer through which the game communicates with the player.

Consistency here isn't just visual polish. It's coherence. A cyberpunk game should feel cyberpunk in its inventory screen and pause menu, not just in its neon-lit environments. When these layers pull in different directions, players feel it, even if they can't name it.

Principle 4: Good Design Makes a Product Understandable

Players should learn naturally. Lengthy tutorials are usually a sign of unclear design.

Game engines provide developers with powerful tools for environmental storytelling, context-sensitive prompts, and the progressive introduction of mechanics. Use them. At any point in the game, a player should intuitively understand what just happened, why it happened, and what to do next — without reaching for a manual. Build teaching moments into level design rather than using pop-up windows.

Principle 5: Good Design Is Unobtrusive

The best interface is often the one players barely notice.

Health bars, quest markers, damage numbers, and compass indicators — each competes for attention. Modern games often overwhelm players with information that could instead be communicated through animation, audio, or world design.

Before adding another HUD widget, ask whether the information could be surfaced in another way. Good design focuses attention rather than fragmenting it.

Principle 6: Good Design Is Honest

Never deceive the player. Fake choices, invisible consequences, artificial difficulty, and rubber-banding that players can feel but not see — these erode trust. When players discover a system has been working against them without their knowledge, they disengage. Rebuilding trust is hard.

This principle extends beyond mechanics. Marketing that misrepresents the game also violates it.

Principle 7: Good Design Is Long-Lasting

The games that remain enjoyable decades later usually earn that reputation through elegant mechanics rather than cutting-edge graphics. Strong gameplay loops age well. Visual gimmicks don't.

A useful test: would this mechanic still be fun if rendered with simple placeholder geometry? If the answer is no, look more closely at whether the mechanic itself is doing the work.

Principle 8: Good Design Is Thorough Down to the Last Detail

Players notice quality even when they can't articulate why. They also notice its absence.

Small details — animation timing, UI spacing, sound effects, save-system behavior, and error messages — compound to create an overall sense of craft. Every interaction should feel intentional.

For each feature, ask questions such as:

• Does it work as intended?
• Does it fail gracefully?
• Is the feedback to the player clear?
• Is the behavior consistent everywhere it appears?

Principle 9: Good Design Is Environmentally Friendly

Rams wrote this with physical resources in mind. In game development, the relevant resources are hardware, development time, and — critically — player time.

Respect the player's resources as well as the computer's resources. Optimize assets, rendering, code execution, and memory usage to prevent the game from wasting hardware resources. At the same time, respect the player's time. Avoid unnecessary repetition, excessive travel, artificial progression barriers, and other forms of grind that extend playtime without meaningfully improving the experience.

Principle 10: Good Design Is as Little Design as Possible

This is arguably Rams' most important principle, and the hardest to follow.

Every added feature introduces complexity, a maintenance burden, potential bugs, and onboarding requirements. The best games often achieve more by doing less.

The practical workflow: build the simplest version of a system, test it, remove what isn't pulling its weight, and test again. Repeat until only the essentials remain.

The test that cuts through everything: If I remove this feature, does the game become worse? If the answer is no, remove it.

Final Thoughts

Dieter Rams designed radios, calculators, and shelves. He never designed a video game.

But his principles endure because they're not about objects — they're about people. Whether you're designing consumer electronics, a mobile app, or a game, the goal remains the same: create something useful, understandable, honest, and built to last.

The most memorable games aren't always the biggest. They're the ones where every mechanic, screen, and decision has a clear purpose.

In Rams' own words: less, but better.

Relevant References:

• Jong, C. de, Klemp, K., Maan, J., & Mattie, E. (Eds.). (2021). Ten principles for good design: Dieter rams: the jorrit maan collection. Prestel.
  ISBN-13: 978-3791387321
• Rams, D. (2021). Weniger, aber besser: = Less but better (9. Auflage). Jo Klatt Design+Design Verlag. ISBN-13: 978-3899555257