A well-designed product equally elevates form and function. It is pleasing to look at, easy to use, and solves a common problem. Here, five design professors answer the following question: What’s the best-designed product of all time, and why? Their responses vary from cheap, everyday products to newer, more expensive ones. But all share a story of trial, error, and ingenuity.

Cutting the glare

Catherine Anderson, The George Washington University
During the early 1920s, as Danish designer Poul Henningsen observed Copenhagen at night, he lamented the quality of light in people’s homes. He noticed that the incandescent bulbs—sometimes bare, sometimes surrounded by a single shade—created “arrows of light” and a harsh glare.

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