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Design Principles: Your Compass In A Hype-Driven World

Design principles are an incredible tool to rally the team around a shared purpose — and document the values and beliefs that an organization embodies. The only limits for tomorrow are the doubts we have today.

We often see design principles as rigid guidelines that dictate design decisions. But actually, they are an incredible tool to rally the team around a shared purpose — and document the values and beliefs that an organization embodies.

They align teams and inform decision-making. They also keep us afloat amidst all the hype, big assumptions, desire for faster delivery and AI workslop. But how do we choose the right ones, and how do we get started? Let's find out.

Real-World Design Principles #

In times when we can generate any passable design and code within minutes, we need to decide better what's worth designing and building — and what values we want our products to embody.

It's similar to voice and tone. You might not design it intentionally, but then end users will define it for you. And so without principles, many company initiatives are random, sporadic, ad-hoc — and feel vague, inconsistent or simply dull to the outside world.

A yellow background with black text reading Design Principles, a practical resource for making better decisions, and statistics: 232 Examples, 1629 Design Principles, and 201 Creators.

Principles.design, a growing repository of design principles, neatly put together by Ben Brignell.

Design principles are guidelines and design considerations that designers apply with discretion — by default, without debating or discussing what has already been agreed upon.

One fantastic resource that I keep coming back to after all these years, is Ben Brignell's Principles.design. It has 230 pointers for design principles and methods, searchable and tagged, covering everything from language and infrastructure to hardware and organizations.

10 Principles Of Good Design #

There is no shortage in principles out there. But the good ones are more than just being visionary — they have a point of view, and they explain what we don't do as much as what we do. They also explain what we stand for in the world — beyond profits, stock prices and all the hype and noise around us.

Dieter Rams' 10 principles of good design.

10 legendary principles for good design, by Dieter Rams. Still relevant, after all these years. Large view.

Many years ago I encountered Dieter Rams' 10 principles of good design (see above), a very humble, practical and tangible overview of principles that were informing, shaping and guarding his design work at Braun.

There are no visionary claims, and no big bold statements: just a clear overview of what we do, and where our ambition and care lives for the products we are designing. It's honest, sincere and in many ways beautifully humane.

Examples of design principles #

There are plenty of wonderful examples that I keep close:

Design principles in design systems #

How to Establish Design Principles #

Design principles can be personal, but usually they are committed to and shaped by the entire product team. Design principles aren't just for designers. User's experience is everything from performance to support to customer service, and ideally participants would cover these areas as well.

In practice though, establishing principles might feel incredibly challenging — they are abstract and fluffy and often ambiguous, and often very difficult to agree upon.

A workshop kit template for running a design principles workshop in Figma.

One of many workshop kits for a design principles workshop.

You can get started with a simple 8-step workshop (inspired by Marcin Treder, Maria Meireles and Better):

  1. Pre-session Research
    Study how users speak about the products, what they appreciate and the words they use.
  2. Get Into Principles Mode
    Invite 6–8 participants, ask them to choose their favorite object, and describe it in 3 words.
  3. Product Analogies
    Compare product to tangible items (e.g., 'A Porsche 911' or 'a Braun audio system').
  4. Extract Attributes
    Individually, in silence, everyone writes 3–5 initial principles, which are then grouped by theme for review.
  5. Link Attributes To Research
    Link attributes to actual user pain points or desires, to make sure they are grounded in reality.
  6. Value Statements
    We write 'We want X because of Y' sentences that express rationale behind our thinking.
  7. Move to Principles
    Remove analogies to create enduring rules that will guide our design process.
  8. Reality Check
    Search for both positive and negative examples in our products to see where principles are being met or ignored.
Participants voting on keyword groups during a design principles workshop.

Voting for the most relevant sentences in keyword groups. From Better.

Useful Starter Kits For Principles Workshops #

Wrapping Up #

Creating principles is only small portion of the work; most work is about effectively sharing and embedding them. It's difficult to get anywhere without finding ways to make design principles a default — by revisiting settings, templates, naming conventions and output.

Principles help avoid endless discussions that often stem from personal preferences or taste. But design should not be a matter of taste; it must be guided by our goals and values. Design principles can help with just that.

Useful Resources #

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