Form with function

I’m not an expert in design. But I’ve always believed that design should be about form and function. Though I’m also fine with function being a heartbeat ahead of form.

It is, of course, helpful if the things we use are pleasing to look at. And it certainly helps with product differentiation — and a company’s sales figures — to design things that are attractive. But should this be at the expense of the product doing what it is meant to? 

Something that looks fantastic, but does not do what it is supposed to with a minimum of fuss is, in my book, not very useful.

Some weeks ago, I received a Fabindia gift card, which was a thoughtful gesture since I use the company’s products. In fact, I’ve found these gift cards to be the perfect present, particularly when I know the recipient enjoys the Fabindia aesthetic.

These gift cards were rectangles of elegantly designed thick-ish paper, with the card’s value printed on one face. On the same face, the date on which the card was bought and the date on which it expired — usually one year from the date of purchase — was either handwritten or stamped with an ink stamp. And on the reverse were the ‘terms and conditions’ for using the card. It was all very straightforward: with a glance you knew how much each card was worth and exactly when its validity would end.

But the FabGift Card, as it’s called, I recently received is very different. It’s a carton that’s slightly larger than a matchbox, and comes with a little ribbon loop. You pull on the ribbon to open the box and inside is a credit-card sized rectangle of cardboard topped by sliver of buttery paper with the Fabindia logo. One face of the card has a design with the FabGift logo worked in and on the other is a five-point list of ‘terms and conditions’, a number and barcode and a scratch strip (that I later discovered hides a code you need to enter when you use the card).

It looks very nice and compact. 

There is one problem though. You have absolutely no idea how much the card is worth and till when it is valid. The ‘terms and conditions’ declare it can be used for a year from the date of purchase. But then you have no idea of the date on which it was bought. So… 

The only way to figure out how much the card is worth and when it expires is to ask the person who gave you the gift or to go to a Fabindia store and get the staff to unearth this information for you. Rather complicated! 

It could, perhaps, be argued that we really don’t need to know much the card is worth or exactly when it expires, since we know it’s valid for a year. But I believe this information matters. 

Most of us aren’t going to rush off to the Fabindia website or a store and buy something the moment we get the card. Chances are we’ll put it away, intending to use it later. But with memory being a slippery character, we could forget about it or forget when we got it. However, if we know exactly when it expires, setting up a specific reminder becomes so much easier. And it’s always useful to know how much money there’s on the card so we can plan our shopping expedition. Also, knowing how much is on the FabGift Card and till when it’s valid means we can even gift it to someone else. 

I initially wondered whether I’d received a one-off or customised card. But from what I can discern, this is the new incarnation of the Fabindia gift card. 

Of course, the card’s new avatar does have some advantages. For one, it possibly offers a certain flexibility in terms of how much can be loaded onto it and it can be used both in stores and on the website. It’s also probably easier to manage for the company. 

I assume — always a tricky thing to do — that the gift card’s redesign process was so focused on form that it glossed over function, the card’s utilitarian aspect. However, I suspect that Fabindia can fix this if they want to. Something as simple as repurposing the buttery paper insert to display both the card’s value and validity and inserting this at the point of sale will probably work. The question though is whether Fabindia will do it.