Design principles, what and how.
Hey, nice for you to be here. In these following blog posts I will talk about design principles, design guidelines and design criteria/rules. Originally, I wanted to do this as one massive blogpost but because of the time it took for me to write design guidelines (which I am still busy with as of writing this post) I decided it is for the better to split them up in several posts.
In this post I will talk about design principles but before I can do that let me shortly explain them all 3 and why I want to talk about all 3 of them.
In the previous post I talked about the users wants and needs. These would result in some criteria to follow when creating a final design but those are not the only criteria your design will have to follow. They are still important though!
Another place where criteria come from is the context of your own organisation or at least the organisation/business that will be creating and releasing the final product. A lot of organisations would like for their products to reflect the values they have, and users also like it when the products they use are aligned with a specific goal. It helps you (the designer) but also the user to determine what the overarching idea of the product is. This overarching idea comes from the design principles that a designer creates before designing the product (or already has).
Ideally this overarching idea is some combination of the values/goals of the organisations and the goals of the user. How we can start making steps to creating criteria that embody both these different stakeholders we need to look at the design principles as a first step.
I wasn’t a particular fan of the first one but choose to show it here because it was the first definition I came in contact with through my bachelors. The second definition I found fell more in line of what I considered to be a design principle. I decided to make the definition I will use here a little more concise which resulted in it being this:
I hope that makes it a lot clearer for you what a design principle is because it certainly helped me.
In this post I will talk about design principles but before I can do that let me shortly explain them all 3 and why I want to talk about all 3 of them.
In the previous post I talked about the users wants and needs. These would result in some criteria to follow when creating a final design but those are not the only criteria your design will have to follow. They are still important though!
Another place where criteria come from is the context of your own organisation or at least the organisation/business that will be creating and releasing the final product. A lot of organisations would like for their products to reflect the values they have, and users also like it when the products they use are aligned with a specific goal. It helps you (the designer) but also the user to determine what the overarching idea of the product is. This overarching idea comes from the design principles that a designer creates before designing the product (or already has).
Ideally this overarching idea is some combination of the values/goals of the organisations and the goals of the user. How we can start making steps to creating criteria that embody both these different stakeholders we need to look at the design principles as a first step.
Design Principles
First things first, I’d like to properly define what is meant with a design principle. To do this I took a look at several different definitions from various places. Two of these definitions are:Design principles represent the accumulated wisdom of researchers and practitioners in design and related fields. When you apply them, you can predict how users will likely react to your design.https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/design-principles
Product design principles (or, in short, design principles) are value statements that frame design decisions and support consistency in decision making across teams working on the same product or service.https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-principles/
I wasn’t a particular fan of the first one but choose to show it here because it was the first definition I came in contact with through my bachelors. The second definition I found fell more in line of what I considered to be a design principle. I decided to make the definition I will use here a little more concise which resulted in it being this:
A design principle is an ideal/value statement that frames design decisions and support consistency in decision making while working on a product or service.
I hope that makes it a lot clearer for you what a design principle is because it certainly helped me.
Now that you know what a design principle is let’s look at what they could look like. The Nielsen Norman Group (who also created that one definition of what a design principle is) have a nice design principle for their website and it is as follows:
That is quite something isn’t it? It immediately tells me that all things they will do on that website will follow this ideal. They decided that information transmission is more important to them than being a popular website and that they’d rather be accurate and informational than popular and potentially wrong.
Clarity Over Popularityhttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-principles/
We’re not an academic journal, nor a trendsetter. Our goal is to be a source of clarity and instruction, and to provide actionable advice for UX professionals that’s backed by research.
Practitioners today come from many different backgrounds and UX isn’t easy; it’s nuanced and complex. Let’s give users advice that’s clear, easy-to-digest, and concrete without introducing unnecessary jargon or confusing terminology. By doing so, we can empower designers to succeed in their jobs and make the world a better, more user-friendly place.
That is quite something isn’t it? It immediately tells me that all things they will do on that website will follow this ideal. They decided that information transmission is more important to them than being a popular website and that they’d rather be accurate and informational than popular and potentially wrong.
------------------------------------------------
Note from future me: Something I missed explaining here is that the design principles discussed here are product-specific design principles. NN-group explains this the best and does so as follows.
It’s worth stating that product design principles are
different from principles of good design, such as usability guidelines,
heuristics, or visual-design principles. Design principles are specific to the
product or service that is being designed. That being said, they are not
directions on how to design specific UI elements (like design patterns or
standards). Often, product design principles are referred to as ‘design
principles,’ and usually, the context is enough to understand whether the term
refers to general UI principles or to product-specific design principles.
------------------------------------------------
So now that you know what a design principle is and what they could look like let’s look at how you could make one yourself. For this I looked at several different sources (which I will put at the end of this post) and from those I wrote down these following 5 steps of how to write your own design principle(s).
1. Identify the core values of the project/users
Before creating design principles, you likely have conducted research or gathered general knowledge about your project and users. During this research phase you must have found some points which seem to stick particularly well with you, your team, the project, your users, or all of the above. These points/statements will serve as the foundation for your design principles.
For example, in my current project a great deal of the users seems to be not particularly great with technology so I will have to account for that. I will do that by making that a design principle.
“Make it intuitive, not just for you but for the general public”.
2. Make it actionable/explain why it is a design principle
Now that you have your headline you will need to explain it. This can be done by shortly going over some data you acquired or just by explaining what it means for you/your team. For me it was based on several interviews I did with different users so my explanation will reflect that.
“Users should be able to use that product with minimal help. They should be able to guess where the functionality is that they want to use. If a user can’t figure it out on their own or with a little guidance it should be reworked”.
3. Consider how these principles would affect your users
This is mostly a self-check. Here you look make sure that the design principles you want to use are there to affect your users positively. If that is not the case, try to see if you can make it so the design principle states this or consider dropping the principle if it doesn’t really benefit anyone.
4. Write them down and iterate on it
Making design principles is not easy. They are the guiding lights you and/or your team will look at when you are working on the project so they might not be completely “it” in the first go. That’s okay. Take some time, let others look at them too, discuss and compare them to other design principles from other companies.
5. Prioritize principles
Now after you have done all of this you might have a bunch of design principles. Great! We are making progress. Now it is time to see if all of these principles are really necessary. It could be that you have too many principles and can’t really get a clear picture of any of them because there are simply too many to keep track of. In Dutch we would say “Door het bos de bomen niet meer zien”. This literally translates to “Not seeing the trees because of the forest” but what is meant with this is that you can’t see the details because there is too much clutter surrounding it. So, in design principle terms this would mean not understanding the individual principles because there are too many to follow.
An interesting example would be the one from Jessie Chen at Invision (https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/determine-design-principles/). Here she talks about this exact thing. She uses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid as a way to prioritize different principles with her team. It is definitely an interesting read, and I would highly recommend it. If you are interested in more information about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you could also check out a previous blog post where I discussed that in the context of user wants and needs.
These 5 steps should basically get you to a point of having a couple effective design principles. There are some extra points which I did not specifically included in any steps but do think should at least have the light shined on them. These points are:
Include everyone who will use the principles with the creation of them.
&
Make sure everyone in the project agrees with them.
Design principles are there as guiding rules in a project. This means that everyone has to share the same vision of the project, and this can only be done if they have all been included in the creation of those principles. Once they have been made, they must be followed otherwise someone might follow their own vision of the project instead of the team’s. This problem can be somewhat avoided by making sure that their qualms have been addressed before the principles are finalized.
Make them visible.
It is unavoidable that someone forgets what the design principles of the project/company are. To make it so they can quickly get back in sync with the project these principles have to be easily findable for them. It is therefore recommended to somehow make them seen and visible by all who it will affect. This could be by mentioning them often in meetings or by adding them to documents used. Whichever way the point is to make it, so they are kept fresh in the memory of everyone who needs them which includes you too!
I hope that this post helped you get a better understanding of what a design principle is and perhaps even helped you make some yourself. Like mentioned before, in the following blog posts I will be talking about design guidelines and design criteria/rules so keep posted for those. For now, have a nice day!
1. Identify the core values of the project/users
Before creating design principles, you likely have conducted research or gathered general knowledge about your project and users. During this research phase you must have found some points which seem to stick particularly well with you, your team, the project, your users, or all of the above. These points/statements will serve as the foundation for your design principles.
For example, in my current project a great deal of the users seems to be not particularly great with technology so I will have to account for that. I will do that by making that a design principle.
“Make it intuitive, not just for you but for the general public”.
2. Make it actionable/explain why it is a design principle
Now that you have your headline you will need to explain it. This can be done by shortly going over some data you acquired or just by explaining what it means for you/your team. For me it was based on several interviews I did with different users so my explanation will reflect that.
“Users should be able to use that product with minimal help. They should be able to guess where the functionality is that they want to use. If a user can’t figure it out on their own or with a little guidance it should be reworked”.
3. Consider how these principles would affect your users
This is mostly a self-check. Here you look make sure that the design principles you want to use are there to affect your users positively. If that is not the case, try to see if you can make it so the design principle states this or consider dropping the principle if it doesn’t really benefit anyone.
4. Write them down and iterate on it
Making design principles is not easy. They are the guiding lights you and/or your team will look at when you are working on the project so they might not be completely “it” in the first go. That’s okay. Take some time, let others look at them too, discuss and compare them to other design principles from other companies.
5. Prioritize principles
Now after you have done all of this you might have a bunch of design principles. Great! We are making progress. Now it is time to see if all of these principles are really necessary. It could be that you have too many principles and can’t really get a clear picture of any of them because there are simply too many to keep track of. In Dutch we would say “Door het bos de bomen niet meer zien”. This literally translates to “Not seeing the trees because of the forest” but what is meant with this is that you can’t see the details because there is too much clutter surrounding it. So, in design principle terms this would mean not understanding the individual principles because there are too many to follow.
An interesting example would be the one from Jessie Chen at Invision (https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/determine-design-principles/). Here she talks about this exact thing. She uses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid as a way to prioritize different principles with her team. It is definitely an interesting read, and I would highly recommend it. If you are interested in more information about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you could also check out a previous blog post where I discussed that in the context of user wants and needs.
These 5 steps should basically get you to a point of having a couple effective design principles. There are some extra points which I did not specifically included in any steps but do think should at least have the light shined on them. These points are:
Include everyone who will use the principles with the creation of them.
&
Make sure everyone in the project agrees with them.
Design principles are there as guiding rules in a project. This means that everyone has to share the same vision of the project, and this can only be done if they have all been included in the creation of those principles. Once they have been made, they must be followed otherwise someone might follow their own vision of the project instead of the team’s. This problem can be somewhat avoided by making sure that their qualms have been addressed before the principles are finalized.
Make them visible.
It is unavoidable that someone forgets what the design principles of the project/company are. To make it so they can quickly get back in sync with the project these principles have to be easily findable for them. It is therefore recommended to somehow make them seen and visible by all who it will affect. This could be by mentioning them often in meetings or by adding them to documents used. Whichever way the point is to make it, so they are kept fresh in the memory of everyone who needs them which includes you too!
I hope that this post helped you get a better understanding of what a design principle is and perhaps even helped you make some yourself. Like mentioned before, in the following blog posts I will be talking about design guidelines and design criteria/rules so keep posted for those. For now, have a nice day!
Sources used but not specifically mentioned:
https://www.invisionapp.com/defined/design-principles
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-principles/
https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/design-principles
https://concept7.nl/artikelen/design-principles
https://toolkit.concept7.nl/tool/designprincipes/
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