The 10 key principles of good Digital Design | Principle 10

Digital Design is a new job profile initiated by Germany’s digital association Bitkom.

With the Digital Design Manifesto, Bitkom has presented ten key principles for good digital design.

As of today, the Digital Design Manifesto has many hundreds of signatories from various industries and professional groups who support the establishment of this new job profile. IREB has joined Bitkom's initiative and is developing a dedicated professional qualification program called Digital Design Professional (DDP).

In our series of 10 essays on "Good Digital Design", we would like to present the ten key principles for good Digital Design and show how a DDP can benefit from the principle at hand.

Today, we finalize the series with principle 10:

Principle 10: Good Digital Design uses digital means only where this is necessary.

Without doubt, digitalization is a leading force for progress. However, this is precisely why it must not become an end in itself, because in this case, it would lose its credibility and power of innovation to improve the lives of all people within society.

Good Digital Design uses digital means intentionally and where this is necessary and creates benefits for the lives of people within our society.

So, what does this mean for the DDP?

A DDP must ensure that digitalization does not become a mantra and that everything and everyone is digitalized just because it is technically feasible. Digitalization must not be driven by a desire for functionality, i.e., a desire for technology. It should be used where society can benefit from it.

For example, from a social perspective, it is neither practical nor sustainable to digitalize and automate every process in the beverage market. However, the process of returning bottles and cans, as well as the automatic counting and calculation of the returned bottles and cans is an example for which a digital solution works well and also provides an added value. However, if you think more carefully about the current solutions, there is certainly still potential to make the process of returning empty bottles and cans a better digital experience, e.g. today the receipt for the returned bottles and cans is printed by the vending machine for the customer - only to hand this piece of paper back to the cashier - often just a few minutes later.

Professional Digital Design has become a key capability. Find out more now: On our website you can download all documents for free and get directly to our recognized training providers.