Fat free Design, True Minimalism or Missing the Point?

I'm a great believer of minimalism. For me the beauty of any design lies in achieving the necessary functionality in as bare a setting as possible. Designers all over the world favor minimalist design philosophies and it shows in most of the things that are designed today. Be it consumer electronics, decor products, daily use items, automobiles; designers as well as the end-users have really begun to appreciate (or to take it forward, live by) minimalism.
Here are a few products that set the benchmark for minimalist design:
1) The Leaf Lamp by Yves Behar

2) The Macbook Air by Apple

3) Alparda’s Arc Desk by Aziz Sariyer



4) Water Bottle design by Fig Tree

Well I guess, this list can go on and on. But the point I want to make here is that, in the attempt to be minimalist, designers tend to commit some basic mistakes. Here's an example:

Flash memory giants Kingston launched a very minimalist cap-less pen drive - DataTraveler 100


The Pen-drive features a neat slide mechanism to lift/drop the USB head. The aim, from what I see, is to do away with a cap and have a compact setup.

But there are some real flaws that should have been looked at:
1) The slider has no locking mechanism at the top (when the USB head is completely out) and so it becomes a pain to insert this pen drive in USB ports (especially hard to access USB ports -like behind the CPU of a PC). Every time, you try inserting the drive, the USB head starts to slip back in. You really have to press the slider hard to plug the drive in. Plug and Play pen drive - Well, not quite!
2) The open top means you better keep it away from water. Aaah, I guess that washes away all the minimalism. :)

So the point that I am trying to make here is that while designing its good to to have an overall outlook where you are looking to create minimalism but then it shouldn't be the case that you miss the point in a big way and actually create tons of problems for the end-users.

Here's a remarkable talk by Captain Organic - Ross Lovegrove about the power and beauty of Organic design (Fat free design) on TED.

Lovegrove's talk

Enjoy!

You are not a man just because you have an Erection!

Contrary to general belief, design is not about creating outlandish forms nor is it about developing mind-boggling shapes. For me design has a simple meaning.

It means "Functionality". Designs should be functional. In case a design is unable to solve the basic purpose it is meant for, it is simply nothing more than "junk" to me. No matter how artistic the form of the design, how beautiful the color combination, how wonderful the layout; without it having all the necessary elements that ensure perfect functionality, its all worth nothing.

For me the true essence of design lies in the tiniest of details. It is about uncovering even the last bit of obscurity and darkness. It should be as clear as water. What this basically means is that unless and until, a designer goes through, in great depth, each and every little aspect of his creation, bearing in mind the overall functionality to be achieved, a design is never complete. A famous designer once said that "..design should be such that you should not have to provide a user manual with your product..". This basically means that the design output should be so fluid and intuitive that the end-users should be able to wake up from half-sleep and still be able to use the product (or whatever it is that has been designed), the first time he/she sees it. All this can only happen when a designer has a strong grip on all the details as well as all the functionality in his creation.
Here's a link where Paul Bennett (IDEO) talks about finding design in the details:
Paul Bennett talks about finding design in the details.
So, basically what I want to say is that what basically matters for a design to be classified as successful is to ensure perfect functionality before anything else. The other facets can follow. So, that is what I mean when I say "You are not a man just because you have an erection".