Great Design (Vs) Optimal Design

This was the topic of another debate held at my company, and  here are some of my own thoughts on the topic.

Design As I understand is the process of developing a plan for a product, or a system. That process could be documented as a set of drawings, models or whatever. After the whole debate, it was still not clear to me what is a great design ? I think there are no "Great" designs on paper.

Eiffel tower was definitely "Designed to be great ", and it stood the test of time.. Columbia ( space shuttle ) was also "Designed to be great", but it was a disaster.Though both were designed to be great, everyone today would quote eiffel tower as an example of a great design, and columbia as that of a disastrous one.

The whole point is that design is only a means to an end (product) and until the product is out in the market and turns out (proven) to be great, you can not really judge whether the design of the product was great or not.

Probably another way to think about great design is to look @ it as being the "best design"

Tata "Nano" - a bad example for great design I suppose. No doubt it is a "Great" Idea or concept that Ratan Tata came up. Without the additional attribute of being a "cheap" car that suites the Indian roads, just look at it as a car in itself. It does not match up to the standards set in the car industry. How can we call it's design great or best ? But it is an "optimally" designed car for Indian market and Indian roads. Even to call it "great" for the Indian market, it is not on the Indian roads yet and not proven itself.

Talking of optimal designs.. For all practical purposes most commercial products are designed to be optimal for the current set of requirements (or) anticipated near future requirements and current needs of the people. Windows may be a good example. It is not the best operating system out in the market. it's products are never the best. But when they are released into the market, they are "greatly" optimized for the current needs of the society. That's why there is so much penetration & market share.

Products are optimized for use by a certain set of people (or) for particular domain (or) for a specific user experience (or) for use within a specific country. Optimization is the key ! From a business perspective, optimization can be looked at as the process of maximizing ( profits and efficiency) given a set of constraints. One main constraint for example can be time to market. It is important to reach the market before your competition does so.

As we design our products, we could optimally design them or design them to be the best but from my perspective if you go for the second option, it may take longer time and there is more risk involved.