7 design principles every designer should totally get

Pop quiz time: What is emphasis? Can you explain what white-space is, without using the word ‘white’, or ‘space’?

Yeah, I’m not sure I would be able to answer these either… and it’s been a while since someone thought I needed to learn some basic design principles…

As I was told verbatim for 3 years, ‘ensuring that these principles are upheld creates a pleasant user experience that is balanced in look and feel as well as intuitive to use.‘ yada, yada. Yes, follow some rules, get a pretty design. I somehow never really believed them, but today, with 16 years experience doing this, I’m finally on the same page as my old design instructor…

I wish I had actual recordings from her, but let’s pretend we do, ‘design principles provide visual clarity while avoiding clutter which can hinder the end user’s experience!’

Emphasis

This principle involves highlighting brand, or brand messaging, of a product or service when designing (an app or website, or anything else). Emphasis helps to create quicker and stronger recognition and assists in conveying strong — effective–messages to the user.

Contrast

Using contrast allows certain elements to stand out more dramatically than others — emphasizing one message or element over other components on a page or application. Contrast creates interest, draws attention where needed, creates amore dynamic experience overall, and communicates key messages more clearly.

Balance and Alignment

Balance and alignment are key principles for design. They help create a look that is naturally pleasing and easy to look at. Alignment provides visual clarity, avoiding clutter (overwhelming emotions) and helps end users access desired information with low friction. Introducing symmetry in turn creates visual harmony. Utilizing proper balance and alignment can allow for maximum usability by presenting content in an organized way that looks aesthetically pleasant.

Repetition

Replicating styles used throughout (design patterns) creates consistent aesthetic across multiple pages, properties, or apps. Familiar patterns throughout the user experience provides customer confidence. Repetition is a design principle that refers to the intentional use of repeated elements within a composition. It can be used to create consistency, generate rhythm, add emphasis and even produce texture. Repetition helps unify an entire visual design and ensure repetition of certain visual elements keeps viewers interested in your designs.

Proportion

Proportion relates to scaling objects appropriately relative each area’s respective importance so margins, padding, and borders look proportionate next to titles and headings. Proportion is a design principle that relates to the size, placement, and quantity of elements in relation to each other. It is important for creating visual harmony and balance within a composition.

Movement

User flow through websites is essential when providing them with multiple pieces of information while ensuring they transition smoothly from section to section and page to page. Movement is a design principle that refers to the visual flow created when elements on a page are placed and arranged in an intentional, purposeful way. It can be used to direct users’ attention and add life to a web or print project. Movement is typically achieved through effective use of typography, color, white space, patterns/textures as well as animation and other interactive elements.

White space

White space is the empty areas within a design that create visual relief and breaks up blocks of content, allowing for better readability. It also gives focus to important elements such as images, text or other graphical elements. White space creates a more modern look and feel for designed materials by making them appear less cluttered.

CRAP, did we miss anything?

Hmmm, it feels like I’m forgetting a few…. What about proximity?

Ahhh, a Williams’ CRAP follower. (CRAP = contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.

Proximity is a design principle that states that related items should be grouped together and placed close to each other. This was first defined by Gestalt psychology in the 1920s, but attributed to a Swiss designer, Lucien Steil, who defined this principle and stated it as “the property by which elements near each other appear to form groups”.

Proximity allows for easier comprehension and can also create an aesthetically pleasing arrangement for viewers.

But, wait! What about… Pattern? Variety? Okay, so there could be as many as 36 actual principles, and no, we’re not talking about all of them here.

Designers of any maturity can benefit from recalling these principles

If you’re anything like me, I cannot remember the last time I actually considered these 7 principles. I take them for granted. I might have almost forgotten about them, had I not seen reference to them, and I couldn’t clearly remember what each of them was.

In design school, I think we’re all just accepting the facts and trying to make pretty cool art. I certainly wasn’t really concerned with anything called a rule or a principle, so I had to learn a little more about who and where these “principles” originated and how we all decided these are super important concepts to get if you want to be a designer.

It turns out, that our predecessors, early commercial-based designers were maybe being influenced by scientific management ideas from Henry Ford and Frederick Taylor (read: efficiency!), and that interest sort of evolved into a consistent approach to design methodology.

In the 1990s, interest shifted toward usability testing, highly popularized by figures such as Nielsen and Barnum and user-centered design championed by Johnson became the norm. Today, research has given way to continuous improvement through prototypes with systems developed for monitoring user interaction; we’re all designing for stats, analytics, and weird KPIs.

This development is seen as progressive but visual criteria still exist when judging designs while “design” books cover these principles academically… still today. Where Nielson’s heuristic evaluation is considered, and we know we’re building for Google SERPs and KPIs that sound like day dreams…

Questions arise around this paradoxical situation; what is a principle? How do they relate? And when?

Do these “principles” even still apply?