First of all, I found the man to be absolutely charming. He seemed very down to earth, friendly, and modest.
He spoke of some great universal themes that I think could apply to web design as well as flatware, furniture, or subway systems.
Perhaps the most salient of these points was "less is more." Simplicity is best, and good design should never forsake function for useless decoration. In fact, he stressed the importance of "decoration by subtraction," a concept I found rather interesting. For example, he showed us a set of black dishes he designed. The only decoration was the whitish trim. Instead of painting the rims of the plates white, he had stripped away the black. Instead of looking to add a little something special, he asked, "What could I take away?"
I think this is an important principle to keep in mind for websites. Every component--text, graphics, links, etc--should have a purpose in navigation. Even after the design has been edited down to the necessary basics, we should always ask what else could be simplified or clarified.
--Leah
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I also really liked the example of the plates, embellished by removing black to reveal the white below instead of adding more paint on top. Thinking of design by subtraction is almost hard for me to wrap my head around, since I am accustomed to starting with a blank slate and thinking of all the things I need to add to it. As we move forward with web design, this is going to be a very, very important idea for me to keep in mind.
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