(FORTUNE Magazine) – AFTER YEARS of neglect, design is finally getting its due from corporate America. Even into the 1970s, many U.S. companies got away with the wholesale peddling of badly designed products like cars, televisions, and stereos. As long as they sold, why not? ''At that time the attitude in European intellectual circles was that Americans were peasants with money,'' says Colin Forbes, a partner in Pentagram, a London design firm. Then the Japanese and Europeans gradually began teaching American consumers that even the simplest product, like a coffee maker or a tape deck, could work well and look smashing. Expectations soared, and many U.S.-made products got battered by better-designed imports. The balance has started to shift as Ford, Corning Glass, Nike, and other top American corporations awaken to the fact that good design pays. Pinning down what constitutes excellence in design can be as tricky as explaining why a Degas painting is so moving. A handsome appearance is essential but not sufficient. Form must be related to function. A well- designed product should solve a particular problem: A car stereo, for instance, can look slick, but if the buttons are hard to find while you're driving, it's badly designed. More subtly, the best products meet or even exceed the buyer's expectations. The door of a Mercedes closes with a solid, comforting thunk; when you turn the key, the engine comes to life with a low, pleasing purr. By polling some of the world's top designers, FORTUNE has picked America's ten best-designed mass-market products. One is the Ford Taurus, whose aerodynamically sleek exterior and ergonomically sophisticated cockpit helped make it the best-selling midsize car in the U.S. (see preceding story). Some of the remaining nine are brand-new and have won design awards; others are already hot sellers.

-- Lawn mowers: Deere & Co. For decades John Deere's distinctive yellow and green farm tractors have stood for high-quality design around the globe. Now the Moline, Illinois, company has extended that standard to its popular line of sit-down lawn mowers. These streamlined suburban wonders perform with special attention to the convenience and safety of the rider. The seat has extra back support, and each control has a different color and shape. If the driver has, say, a heart attack and falls off the mower, a weight-sensitive switch in the seat automatically kills the engine. List price: $1,000 to $3,500. -- Voyager: Texas Instruments. Winner of the prestigious 1988 ID Magazine of International Design award for consumer products, TI's new educational toy, the Voyager, is compact and easy to use. It is the first product to employ advanced voice-recognition technology to help children learn about everything from dinosaurs to hummingbirds to spaceships. When a computer-generated voice in the cheerfully colored headphones asks a question about, say, whether Tyrannosaurus rex was a meat eater, the child answers with yes or no or true or false. The headset, which can speak in five tones of voice ranging from a squeaky Minnie Mouse to a raspy Darth Vader, then tells him whether he is right or wrong. Price: $65. -- Macintosh: Apple. The Macintosh revolutionized computer design by softening and humanizing technology. From its handy mouse to its lively graphics, Apple's classic computer gives a user a feeling of comfort and familiarity that grows over time. Four years after they were first introduced, these warmly styled boxes are still jumping off the shelves. As a sign of how seriously it takes design, Apple is one of the few major American corporations that has its chief designer report to its top executives throughout the decision-making process. Price: $1,300 to $1,500. -- Ray-Ban sunglasses: Bausch & Lomb. One test of good design is whether it endures, and if any product qualifies, it's Ray-Ban sunglasses. Introduced in the late 1930s, Ray-Ban's Aviator glasses, with their flying-ace look, still appeal to millions around the world. In 1957 Bausch & Lomb introduced the Wayfarer, a cool set of shades made even more popular by the hit film Risky Business. The company now has six different Wayfarer styles and says it sold two million pairs last year. Price: $60 to $80. -- Visions Cookware: Corning. Just because something is as ordinary as a pot or pan doesn't mean it can't be beautiful. Corning Glass Works' elegant Visions line of cookware is made of a transparent amber glass-ceramic that is 50% more heat resistant and therefore safer if inadvertently left on the flame than traditional copper or aluminum. The glass pots and pans are easy to clean and, unlike metal cookware, can go in the microwave. Launched in 1983, Visions is now Corning's best-selling cookware line. Price: $9 to $75. -- Power tools: Black & Decker. Sometimes the best designs solve the simplest problems, as Black & Decker's new line of cordless power tools do for anyone who has ever tried to drill or saw something where there's no electrical outlet. Sturdy and dependable, these black and silver battery-powered screwdrivers, drills, ratchets, and jigsaws can be charged in a few hours to handle almost any household chore. Already a hit in the U.S. and in England, the tools are now being introduced throughout Europe. Next year professional versions will go on sale in Japan. Price: $20 to $70. -- Acoustimass speakers: Bose. Wondering where to hide those big, ugly stereo speakers in your elegant living room? Bose, in Framingham, Massachusetts, has revolutionized home listening by producing big sound from tiny boxes. Stereo Review recently wrote that these Bose speakers, each only the size of a brick, produce better sound than large ones costing three to five times as much. The small pairs of speakers broadcast the treble and the upper part of the mid- range, while a single black box that can be hidden behind a curtain or beneath the couch resonates the lower mid-range and the bass. Price: $699. -- Series I binoculars: Vivitar. These lightweight -- only 24 ounces -- and compact binoculars won this year's prestigious Stuttgart Design Award as well as a prize from ID magazine for their ''elegant and thoughtful'' style. Rather than the traditional hard glossy finish, the 10x42 glasses have a rubber exterior that provides a better grip and protects them against rain and shock. Eyeglass wearers, who often have trouble using conventional binoculars, can simply fold back the collapsible rubber eyecups. With a magnifying power of 10, the glasses are well suited to nature study, amateur astronomy, and horse racing. Hanimex Corp., an Australian company, bought Vivitar some three years ago, but the binoculars are still 100% American designed. Price: $270. -- Air Max: Nike. A pacesetter in running shoes, Nike introduced its technologically advanced Air Max last year and has already sold over a million pairs around the world. The sturdy, well-crafted shoes, a favorite of the marathon set, have a small window in the heel that lets customers see a patented polyurethane bag filled with a proprietary gas for cushioning. Nike says the shoes retain 98% of their resilience after 500 miles of pavement pounding. Price: $85.